Story of a Scottish town made infamous for its ‘witch’ trials

This is my final appeal for anyone who wants to promote their ancient town for a column. Please do so this week by emailing me at nationalhamish@gmail.com. If they meet my criteria I can expand my list. They need to have been established as a town, usually a burgh, before the Reformation in 1560, and at one or more points they need to have played a part in the history of Scotland.

Once the series is complete, I will be concentrating on the history of the Scottish Border towns – surprisingly not so ancient.

Regular readers will know I am writing about towns whose history has been thoroughly researched as mere history writers like myself depend on real historians for our facts. For today’s subject I have relied on the Forfarshire section of the book the New Statistical Account Of Scotland compiled for the Church of Scotland by the Committee for the Society for the Sons and Daughters of the Clergy, published by Blackwood of Edinburgh in 1845.

READ MORE: The small Scottish town with a mighty history now overshadowed by its neighbour

It is a regular source for historians and history writers and was groundbreaking in its day, as the New Statistical Account (NSA) was the first book anywhere to chart the development of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century.

It is mostly accepted that Forfar means “cold point” in Gaelic, though some say it derives from the Gaelic word “faithir” which means “watch hill” or “sentinel”. Situated in Strathmore at the heart of Angus, Forfar, like many of our ancient towns, owed its establishment to its strategic location at the junction of several routes.

Though archaeological evidence is thin, there were probably native tribes settled in the area in the Iron Age, and certainly the Roman invaders in the first and second centuries knew how important this location already was as they made their way northwards, building fortresses as they went.

The NSA records: “In the vicinity of Forfar, there are remains of Roman camps, one at Black Dykes or Battle Dykes in the parish of Oathlaw, the other at Haerfauldsy in the Moor of Lower in the parish of Inverarity. Between these two camps, there was a causeway, the greatest part of which ran through the parish of Forfar and some indications of this road may yet be traced where the land has not been cultivated. Nearly at an equal distance between these two camps, the remains of another camp are distinctly visible. This camp is about a mile-and-a-half east from Forfar, and is of very considerable extent. By some it is alleged that this is the remains not of a Roman but of a Pictish camp.”

Angus was one of the heartlands of the Picts, and Forfar may well have developed at first as a Pictish settlement. Pictish stones have been found in the area, the most important being those at Aberlemno just a few miles from Forfar.

An example of a Pictish carving at Aberlemno

The Picts converted to Christianity and there is evidence of a possible church or other religious institution at the site which later housed Restenneth Priory. Speculation that the early church was founded by the Pictish king Nechtan in the late seventh or early eighth century must remain entirely guesswork in the absence of any solid proof, though tradition has it that a stone church dedicated to St Peter on the site was built by St Boniface at the king’s request.

The NSA says: “A fosse (defensive ditch) evidently extended from the Loch of Forfar to that of Restennet [sic], and it is stated (in a paper published by the late Dr Jamieson, author of the Dictionary of the Scottish Language, and who at one time was a Seceder minister in Forfar,) in reference to this camp, ‘that the ditch and the rampart had been cast by the Picts under Feredith, for guarding their camp against the attack from the Scots under Alpin, before the battle of Restennet’.

“Occasionally coins, urns, and pieces of armour have been found in the ruins where the camp just mentioned is situated.”

That battle is supposed to have taken place around 820 with the Scots of Dalriada being led by Alpin Mac Echdach whose son Kenneth MacAlpin united the Picts and Scots under his rule around 843, the year traditionally said to be when Scotland was founded.

READ MORE: The ancient town that was once a home fit for kings

It is likely that, as with so many of our ancient towns, Forfar developed through Christian settlement and was established as a large village or township by the 11th century when King Malcolm II made it his base for his battles against the invading Vikings. He may well have built a fort or castle, but no trace of it survives.

King Malcolm III (Canmore) and his second wife Queen Margaret took a close interest in the area. The king held a parliament there and the queen – who eventually became a saint – is said to have had a small chapel, similar to that which stands in Edinburgh Castle, on an island in Forfar Loch.

Again, no trace of the chapel survives, and on my last visit to Forfar I could see no island in the loch which is now at the centre of a country park, though the peninsula known as Queen Margaret’s Inch suggests where it was.

The royal couple spent so much time in Forfar that some people claim the town was temporarily the capital of Scotland. The pattern of an ancient town growing up around a castle will be familiar to readers of this series and so, too, is royal patronage. Again in Forfar’s case, this was by King David I (who reigned 1124-53) who named the town as one of his royal burghs.

Maddeningly, we don’t know the exact date of the charter, or what it contained but it certainly boosted Forfar as a centre of trade and David’s grandson, King William I, the Lion, reconfirmed the charter in 1185, by which time Forfar was the centre of government for Angus with a stone castle built during the Lion’s reign.

A depiction of Alexander II of Scotland

The NSA states: “In the earliest notices that exist relative to Forfar, its castle is described as a royal residence; and in the accounts of the Chamberlain of the Royal Household in the reign of Alexander II and of some preceding monarchs, a charge is entered for the King’s gardeners at Forfar. It is probable that the castle, the occasional residence of the monarch, and the residence of the sheriff of the county, gave rise to the fame of Forfar, and undoubtedly these circumstances secured to it its privileges as a royal burgh.”

Forfar was at the centre of a horrific incident at the end of the rising by the MacWilliam family against the royal house of Canmore. After Gille Escoib MacWilliam’s defeat and death ended their revolt in 1229, his infant daughter or granddaughter, the last of the family, met her end in Forfar. The Lanercost Chronicle recorded: “The same MacWilliam’s daughter, who had not long left her mother’s womb, innocent as she was, was put to death, in the burgh of Forfar, in view of the market place, after a proclamation by the public crier. Her head was struck against the column of the market cross, and her brains dashed out.”

The town gained its first church inside its boundaries in 1241, dedicated to St James, and it is likely that local men of standing sent their sons to a school there. Possession of Forfar Castle became an important issue during the Wars of Independence and after the Castle was surrendered to him, Edward I of England, Longshanks, stayed at the castle and installed a garrison there from 1296.

It took until 1307 to dislodge them. The NSA reports: “In that year King Robert Bruce proceeded from Aberdeen to Angus and here new success awaited him in the capture of the Castle of Forfar, at this time strongly garrisoned by the English.

“It was taken by escalade (assault by ladders) during the night by a soldier named Philip the Forester of Platen, who put all the English to the sword. The King, according to his usual policy, instantly commanded the fortifications to be destroyed.”

READ MORE: The ancient Scottish town which paid for family's royal drama

Though it was partially rebuilt, no trace of Forfar Castle now remains above ground.

Despite its removal, Forfar continued to be an important town, as shown by the fact that Angus was later renamed Forfarshire, though that ended in 1928.

One part of Forfar’s history that cannot be ignored is the town’s horrendous encounter with witchcraft. I am indebted to Keith Coleman of the Angus folklore website for illuminating the tragic events that took place against the background of the Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661-63 in which 660 people, mostly women, across Scotland were accused of witchcraft, with perhaps 300 executed.

East Lothian was the first area to see a witch frenzy and it was a man from that area, John Kincaid of Tranent, who arrived in Forfar as a self-proclaimed “expert” on finding the Devil’s marks that showed a woman was a witch. This could be an eye squint or a seizure from epilepsy, even a birthmark on the skin. Kincaid would earn a considerable sum – was that why he kept finding “witches”? – and later was made an honorary burgess of the town.

In September 1661, the prosecuting authorities got a spectacular break when two clearly demented women called Isabel Shyrie and Helen Guthrie confessed to being witches. Guthrie’s case was remarkable in that she confessed to being a habitual drunk consumed with wickedness who had learned witchcraft from one Janet Galloway of Kirriemuir. She even confessed to murdering her own step-sister when they were children.

In order to preserve her life and that of her 13-year-old daughter Janet Howat, Guthrie kept on accusing people. She eventually made three confessions implicating dozens of local people in witchcraft, everything from issuing curses to consorting with the Devil.

Shyrie confessed to killing Bailie George Wood with poison made from a witch’s recipe. She was executed 20 days later, strangled in public and then burned in a barrel of tar.

The truly sad aspect of the witch hunt is that despite knowing the terrible fate that awaited them, numerous women and one man confessed. But when you learn that some were tortured and subjected to sleep deprivation over many nights it becomes understandable.

As many as 30 or so people were found guilty by the commission sent to try them, and nine were put to death by the rope and tar. Helen Guthrie ran out of people to accuse and was the last to be executed. It was the end of an awful period in the history of the town. King Charles II showed his approval by confirming Forfar as a royal burgh.

Like so many of our ancient towns, Forfar benefited from the Industrial Revolution and the coming of the railways. With textiles, manufacturing and trade confirming its status, Forfar stayed at the heart of Angus.

As for the history of the Forfar Bridie, that is a tale I will recount when I return to this fascinating town in a future column on the later history of Forfar.