Peak Witch Hunt

Witch Hunt

Scotland carried out five times more executions per capita for witchcraft than the European average but how did people come to believe in such a thing and what did they believe about it? Our top-notch panel of Scottish historians are here to take you deep into the psyche of the 16th and 17th century, along with our hosts Susan Morrison and Louise Yeoman.

This time - how do we get to peak witch-hunt? The civil wars and political upsets of the mid-17th century led to a swell of Scottish pride in being one of the Godliest societies on earth, ruled by an ancient royal dynasty. They also saw the two biggest witch-hunts in Scottish history. Witch-hunting on such a scale was partly fuelled by the rise of the professional witch-finder - the witch-pricker, but it also contained the seeds of its own demise as the dodgy methods of the witch-finders and the local communities who employed them came to the ears of increasingly sceptical men of law.