Maggie Wall: The Witch Who Never Was

By Geoff Holder

It is one of the most astonishing monuments in the British Isles, never mind Scotland. Deep in the Perthshire countryside stands a cairn of boulders topped with a tall, spindly cross, the stones painted with the stark words:

MAggie Wall
burnt here
1657 as a Witch

There is nothing like it anywhere: a historic monument to a named witch. There is, it is true, the occasional plaque here and there in Scotland to the events of the witchcraft era; but these are modern remembrances, created out of modern sensibilities. The Maggie Wall monument, by contrast, is old.

And it is mysterious. Questions abound. Who was Maggie Wall? What happened to her? Why, of all the witches executed, does she alone have a monument? Why is there a cross on the top? Is the monument a sepulchre (that is, it marks a place of burial) or a cenotaph (a memorial without a grave)? Who built it? When? And why?

Geoff Holder digs deep to find answers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The New Curiosity Shop
• Release date: Dec 4, 2013
• ISBN: 9781311081322

Book preview

Maggie Wall – The Witch Who Never Was

Geoff Holder

Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Description of the Monument

Chapter 2: Scottish Witchcraft

Chapter 3: Witchcraft in Dunning

Chapter 4: Speculations, Theories and Fantasies

Chapter 5: Maggies Wall – The Witch Who Never Was

Appendix – The Scottish Witchcraft Law of 1563

Bibliography

Meet the Author

Curious About the New Curiosity Shop

Maggie Wall—The Witch Who Never Was

Geoff Holder

Copyright © Geoff Holder 2013

Published by The New Curiosity Shop at Smashwords

www.newcurioshop.com

Edition 1.0

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

Dedication

To Marnie, agent of C*H*A*O*S.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank: David Connolly; Simon Cowan and his colleagues at the Dunning Historical Society, especially for articles from the Society’s newsletter; David Doig; Gerri Drobot (http://nimblefingerskeepsakes); Ségolène Dupuy; Chris Johnston of the band Mastema (www.facebook.com/mastemamusic); David Neil; T & M Stonemasons; and the staff at the A.K. Bell Library, Perth, and the National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh.

Any errors are of course the author’s own, as indeed are his conclusions regarding the permeable membrane between Maggie Wall and reality.

Introduction

Enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers: for we are but of yesterday.

The Book of Job 8:8-9

It is one of the most astonishing monuments in the British Isles, never mind Scotland. Deep in the Perthshire countryside stands a cairn of boulders topped with a tall, spindly cross, the stones painted with the stark words:

MAggie Wall

burnt here

1657 as a Witch

There is nothing like it anywhere: a historic monument to a named witch. There is, it is true, the occasional plaque here and there in Scotland to the events of the witchcraft era; but these are modern remembrances, created out of modern sensibilities. The Maggie Wall monument, by contrast, is old.

The Maggie Wall Witchcraft Monument at Dunning, Perthshire, Scotland. (The Author)

And it is mysterious. Questions abound. Who was Maggie Wall? What happened to her? Why, of all the witches executed, does she alone have a monument? Why is there a cross on the top? Is the monument a sepulchre (that is, it marks a place of burial) or a cenotaph (a memorial without a grave)? Who built it? When? And why?

I first explored these questions in my 2011 book Paranormal Perthshire. Here I present a greatly expanded and updated version of my conclusions, drawing on detective work deep within the unpublished archives of earlier eras. I am aware that not everybody agrees with my interpretation of the history of the monument. But this is what I have found, and this is where it has led me.

Happy trails.

Chapter 1: The Description of the Monument

All the old histories… are only fables agreed upon.

Voltaire, Jeannot et Colin (1764)

Dunning is a Lowland Scottish village of some thousand souls. It nestles deep in the valley or strath of the meandering River Earn, and its low altitude can be best appreciated if you leave the main A9 dual carriageway high on its ridgeway and follow the steep descent of the B9141 from Broom of Dalreach. Five other minor roads converge on the village centre at Dunning, which is dominated by the 11th/12th century church of St Serf, a wonderful structure now in the care of Historic Scotland. The church houses the relocated Dupplin Cross, one of the great Pictish carved stones from Dark Age Scotland, and the surrounding graveyard is also worth a visit.

The medieval church of St Serf and the centre of Dunning village. (The Author)

Eleven miles to the north is Perth, the county town and the dominant economic player in the area; the official name of the county is Perth & Kinross, but most people – outside the former Kinross-shire area anyway – use the old word, Perthshire. The No.17 bus from Perth city centre is a pleasant way to arrive at Dunning, the route wandering through the douce villages and genial green landscape of eastern Strathearn. To the south of Dunning the B934 rapidly climbs into a cluster of mostly empty hills on its way to Glendevon. And to the west the B8062 runs in a vaguely straight fashion towards Auchterarder, the ‘Lang Toon’ which wraps itself in a narrow band around its main road for over a mile. The B8062 was, before the A9 became the preferred route to Perth, the main road. And it is on the north side of this now quiet thoroughfare that the Maggie Wall monument stands. The Ordnance Survey map