St. Andrew’s Old Kirk

Located in North Berwick, a seaside village 30 miles east of Edinburgh, Scotland, the remains of St. Andrew’s Old Kirk have a historical significance that few passers-by are aware of.  

Legend has it that toward the end of the 16th century, a large coven gathered here on Halloween night to invoke a spell to prevent King James VI from meeting his betrothed, the future Queen Anne, of Denmark. As it happened, bad weather stranded Queen Anne in Norway on her journey to meet her betrothed, and James travelled to Norway to retrieve her. This trip, too, was plagued by heavy storms.

After an earlier trip to Denmark, James had learned of women being put on trial for witchcraft. Upon his return to Scotland, he became convinced similar abnormal forces had put him and his spouse in mortal danger during their voyages. This marked the beginning of the first intense witch hunt in Scotland. (There were five such periods between the passage of the Witchcraft Act in 1563 and its repeal in 1735.) 

Two of the accused were the healer Geillis Duncan and a midwife called Agnes Sampson. For several days, they were tortured. Under duress, they admitted to horrrific acts, including mutilating corpses and throwing a cat into the sea to curse the weather. Both Duncan and Sampson were eventually convicted of witchcraft and executed.

All told, the Scottish witch trials would last for centuries and result in the killing of thousands of innocent victims.