The old sign read,
“The Witches Stone of Spott.
Marion Lillie, the Ringwoody Witch was burnt here in 1698.
The stone is reputed to stand on the site of the burning of the last witch in the South of Scotland.
Near to this site the Birley Tree stood, under whose branches the local Birley Court was held.”
The Witches Stone is said to mark the spot where Marion Lillie, known as the Rigwoody, or Ringwoodie Witch, was burned at the stake in 1698 and serves to commemorate Marion Lillie and the plight and deaths of many others that were executed for witchcraft. The site outside the current village is thought to have been used as a place of trial, punishment and execution. The term, “Rigwoodie,” is an old Scottish word used to denote someone thin and bony. With many terms involved around the persecution of witchcraft it might be that the term is being recorded in to indicate both an improper sexual allure through magic and to add sexual allure to the telling and retelling of the story. Some authors record that many witches were burnt on the top of, “Spott loan”, in 1705, seven years after the death of Marion Lillie in 1698 which if accurate would reveal that Marion Lillie was not the last witch to be burned in the South of Scotland.
To this day the very harsh nature of times gone by including religious punishment can be seen at Spott kirk. An iron chain and neckbrace, or the 'Jougs' are displayed on the external wall near the kirk door. Contemporary locals keep a tradition of placing a coin on the Witches' Stane when passing so as to avoid bad luck. The now fenced off monument attracts other offerings too. The outcast and the persecuted are better remembered over time and there is a greater acceptance of witchcraft than before whether in the past it was anything like we often now think of it with it being a popular theme in contemporary culture.
It is noted that the area around Spott was notorious for its witch burnings in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. East Lothian has been made infamous due well publicised witch trials, with records detailing allegations, trials and convictions around Haddington, Tranent and North Berwick. The Iron Age hill fort on The Chesters, not far to the south west of Spott was also linked to witch burnings. From early drawings it is possible that the current stone is the last survivors of several that were a part of a megalithic monument. The current monument attracts good attention for the right reasons and it serves for commemoration of society being inhumane which is something that we all need to struggle against and to succeed in fighting. To witches and to all that society would seek to silence there is a potential for full re-evaluation unfortunately all too often after terrible costs of life.
PHH
Sykes ©2020
phhsykes@gmail.com
Further References
https://canmore.org.uk/event/1088084
Field Visit (25 June 1913)
RCAHMS County Inventory: East Lothian
A rough block of stone about 22 inches across both ways but almost entirely covered with road scrapings, lies at the root of the hedge on the southern side of the road some 3/8 mile south-west of Spott Church and 90 yards north-east of the junction of the road to. Little Spott. This stone is placed near the spot where Marion Lillie the Ringwoodie Witch was burnt. At the western corner of the junction of the road to Little Spott stands the Birley Tree, an ash tree, 12 feet 4 inches in girth 6 feet from the ground, which marks the place where the Birley Courts were held in olden days.
RCAHMS 1924, visited 25 June 1913.
https://canmore.org.uk/collection/1460251
Drawing of the Witches' Stane.
James Drummond
Description Drawing of the Witches' Stane.
Date 1/9/1849
Collection Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Catalogue Number DP 203322
Category On-line Digital Images
Copy of ELD 177/1
Scope and Content SAS 386 p.77.
Accession Number 1975/12
External Reference SAS 386
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/1460251
https://canmore.org.uk/event/1087782
Some 500 yards east of the dwelling house on Innerwick Farm and nearly 200 yards south of the public road, in a field called Single Knowes field, is a slightly rising piece of ground known as the Witches Knowe, on which a number of witches are said to have been burnt.
RCAHMS 1924, visited 26 June 1913
https://canmore.org.uk/event/1088085
About 80 years ago, while foundations were being prepared for the old hot-houses in Spott House gardens, the skeletal remains of a number of men with fragments of their accoutrements, including broken swords and buttons, were found, no doubt relics of some of the Covenanters who fell at the battle of Dunbar. All the remains were re-interred in the Kirkyard of Spott, 26 feet from the north-eastern corner of the church and some 5 or 6 feet east of the line of the wall of the church.
RCAHMS 1924, visited 25 June 1913.
