The mystery of Scottish "witch" Maggie Wall

Just outside the village of Dunning in Perthshire, lies a monument. It’s a collection of stones about 20 feet high, topped with a cross and decorated with gifts left by visitors—pennies, feathers, shells, fluffy stuffed animals, and tiny tea candles. The stones bear the words in stark white lettering: “Maggie Wall burnt here 1657 as a witch.”

Scotland was home to nearly 3,800 people accused of witchcraft between 1500s and 1700s, the vast majority of whom were women. In the end, about 1,500 were murdered as a result of witch hunt inquisitions. However, mysteriously, there is no record of a woman named Maggie Wall being tried as a witch. What’s more, there’s no record of the monument itself until 1866, though a forest surrounding the monument called Maggie Walls Wood was documented as of 1829.

There are several theories about who Maggie Wall was and why her monument exists. Some have suggested that Lord Andrew Rollo (the landowner of the area at the time) was having an affair with Maggie, and built the monument after she was executed out of guilt.

Others theorise that it was in fact Lady Rollo who erected the monument, feeling a sense of sympathy towards Maggie and women like her.

In 1663, six women from Dunning were accused of witchcraft (and three were executed), which is an alarmingly high number considering the village only had a couple of hundred residents.

The 1650s and 1660s were turbulent times in this Perthshire parish, with the witch trials coinciding with religious and political tensions.

The local minister, Revered George Muschet, was deemed unfit by church officials, but he was well liked within the village. When officials attempted to discipline the minister in 1652, they were attacked by an angry mob of local women who wanted to keep him in the church.

Some have suggested that Maggie Wall was part of this group, and that may be why she came under the wrath of the church and burned as a witch a few years later.

The accepted theory is that this monument stands as a testament to all the witches murdered in Scotland during the witch hunts as no other such monument exists. Perhaps the name was taken from the surrounding wood to represent the countless and forgotten women who were killed. Occasionally a wreath is laid at the foot of the monument, serving as a reminder of the injustices suffered by the mysterious symbolic witch, Maggie Wall.

Before You Go

This monument is located right outside of Dunning Scotland. Dunning is in Perth and Kinross. It is off of the road B8062 which you can access from the A9 highway.