History of Witchcraft in Edinburgh Tour

Detail of map of accused Scottish witches focused on Edinburgh.

The History of Witchcraft in Edinburgh is a new walking tour created by Wikimedian in Residence, Ewan McAndrew, and the team behind the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Visualisation project.  The tour can be accessed through the Witches website and the Curious Edinburgh app.  All content created for the tour has been shared under Creative Common licence.

Screen shot of the History of Witches in Edinburgh tour on the Witches website.

History of Witches in Edinburgh Tour

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Scotland went through a series of changes which fuelled the Scottish witch hunt. The state became stronger and more able to interfere with ordinary people’s lives. The church went through a shake-up in religious belief called the Reformation and became much more interested in what ordinary people did and believed.  Witchcraft became a secular capital crime by an act of the Scottish parliament in 1563. So, church and state collaborated to pursue witches. This led to the persecution of upwards of 4000 people in Scotland, in what we now recognize as the Scottish witch-hunts.

The Scottish witch trials help to inform us about various aspects of the past, including the history of crime, law, society, and religion. They raise questions as to what Scottish people believed about magic, malice, and misfortune in their everyday lives. And what are the legacies of these trials and executions today?

This tour will take you through some of the sites in Edinburgh that are associated with witchcraft trials. Each stop will take you through a different aspect of this difficult part of Scotland’s story and inform you of the role that Edinburgh itself played.


Curious Edinburgh, CC BY