Discover the way to commemorate the Witchcraft Act’s many victims in Scotland through a “living memorial”.
Tartan is more than patterned cloth in Scotland. Specific tartans were linked to clans and regions, and the designs carry symbolic meaning.
Modern tartans are registered for organisations, individuals, and commemorative purposes in the official Scottish Register of Tartans and the newest entry is special.
The new Witches of Scotland tartan is a memorial for the people – primarily women – falsely persecuted under Scotland’s Witchcraft Act which was in place between 1563 and 1736. The decree defined witchcraft as a crime and resulted in the executions and burnings of thousands.
The new tartan, registered on 11 February, is part of a campaign to bring attention to these unjustified executions across Scotland and to remind people of historical injustices that stemmed from the desire to subjugate women, stigmatize folk medicine and persecute those who practiced midwifery.
The Scottish Register of Tartans states: “This design was created to memorialise those who suffered as a result of The Witchcraft Act 1563 to 1736 in Scotland. This tartan will be woven to make products to help create a ‘living memorial’.”
According to The Wild Hunt, the tartan was desined by Clare Campbell, founder of the Prickly Thistle tartan mill.
The Witches of Scotland tartan is predominantly black, grey and red – colours which represent the dark chapter of history, as well as its bloody outcome. Grey symbolises ash, pink stands for the legal tapes binding trial documents, while red stands for bloodshed.
The thread count encodes the years 1563 and 1736 (1+5+6+3 = 15 and 1+7+3+6 = 17), with these numbers woven into black and grey bands surrounding a white check of three threads, symbolizing the campaign’s three objectives.
These are securing 1) a legal pardon; 2) a formal apology; 3) national memorials for those convicted and executed.
The 173 threads in the tartan’s squares symbolise the number of years the Witchcraft Act was enforced.
Founded in 2020 by Claire Mitchell KC and Zoe Venditozzi, Witches of Scotland has campaigned for justice.
In 2022, on International Women’s Day, then-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon acknowledged the historic injustice and issued a formal apology.
“Firstly, acknowledging injustice, no matter how historic is important,” said Sturgeon at the time. “This parliament has issued, rightly so, formal apologies and pardons for the more recent historic injustices suffered by gay men and by miners.”
“Second, for some, this is not yet historic. There are parts of our world where even today, women and girls face persecution and sometimes death because they have been accused of witchcraft.”
She continued: “And thirdly, fundamentally, while here in Scotland the Witchcraft Act may have been consigned to history a long time ago, the deep misogyny that motivated it has not. We live with that still. Today it expresses itself not in claims of witchcraft, but in everyday harassment, online rape threats and sexual violence.”
Despite Sturgeon’s acknowledgment, no official pardon has yet been granted.
Additional sources • The Wild Hunt, Witches of Scotland
