Scotland has a dark, jagged relationship with its own history. If you walk through the winding closes of Edinburgh or look out over the gray waters of the Dornoch Firth, you’re standing on ground that once burned. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, this country was obsessed with the devil. But while the massive trials of the 1590s get all the textbook space, it’s the quiet, heartbreaking end of the era that actually tells us the most about who we were. We’re talking about Janet Horne.
She was the last.
In 1727, Janet Horne was burned in a tar barrel in Dornoch, Sutherland. It’s a date that feels weirdly late. By then, the "Age of Enlightenment" was supposedly in full swing. Sir Isaac Newton had died that same year. People were reading newspapers and discussing philosophy in coffee houses. Yet, in a far-flung corner of the Highlands, a mother and daughter were being dragged before a makeshift court on charges that belonged in the Middle Ages.
The Brutal Reality of the Janet Horne Case
Most people think of "witches" as young women in pointed hats or perhaps mysterious herbalists living in the woods. Janet wasn't that. She was an elderly woman, likely suffering from what we’d now call dementia or Alzheimer’s. She was vulnerable. Honestly, that’s the reality of the Scottish witch hunts that nobody wants to talk about: it wasn't a war on magic; it was a war on the "other."
The specific accusation against her was bizarre, even for the time. Neighbors claimed she had turned her own daughter into a pony. They said she’d had the girl shod by the Devil himself. This is where the physical evidence—or what passed for it—came in. Janet’s daughter had a deformity in her hands and feet. Today, a doctor would probably diagnose it as a congenital condition or a severe case of clubfoot. In 1727 Dornoch? That was a "cloven hoof."
The trial was a sham. The local sheriff-deputy, Captain David Ross of Inverchasley, pushed the case forward despite the fact that the legal tide in Great Britain was turning. Her daughter managed to escape, but Janet wasn't so lucky.
The execution was gruesome. It’s said that as she was led toward the fire, the day was cold. Janet, confused and shivering, reached out to the flames to warm her hands. She supposedly said, "What a bonny blaze." It is one of the most haunting quotes in Scottish history because it highlights the sheer lack of understanding of her own situation. She wasn't a martyr for a dark religion. She was a confused old woman who was cold.
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Why the Scottish Witch Trials Were Different
To understand why Scotland took so long to stop killing "witches," you have to look at the law. Scotland had the Witchcraft Act of 1563. It made both the practice of witchcraft and consulting with witches capital crimes.
- Religious Zeal: Unlike England, where witchcraft was often seen as a felony against the state, in Scotland, it was a sin against God. The Kirk (the Church of Scotland) was deeply involved in the prosecutions.
- The Scale: Per capita, Scotland executed about five times as many people for witchcraft as the rest of Europe.
- Torture: While technically restricted, Scottish authorities were much more "creative" with sleep deprivation and physical restraint to get confessions.
Basically, the Scottish legal system was designed to find guilt, not truth. By the time Janet Horne was caught in the gears, the system was technically failing, but the local prejudice was still functioning at full steam.
The Turning Point of 1736
Just nine years after Janet was reduced to ash, the British Parliament finally woke up. They repealed the Witchcraft Act in 1736. They replaced it with a law that punished people for pretending to have magical powers, essentially turning witchcraft from a religious crime into a form of fraud.
It was too late for Janet.
Visiting the Site: The Witch’s Stone
If you go to Dornoch today, you can find a small, unremarkable stone in a private garden near the golf course. It’s called the Witch’s Stone. It’s marked with the year 1722, though most historians—including the likes of Dr. Julian Goodare, a leading expert on Scottish witchcraft—agree that 1727 is the more likely date of the execution.
The stone is a grim reminder. It doesn't look like a monument to a historical turning point. It looks like a mistake.
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There have been modern movements to pardon those executed under the Witchcraft Act. In 2022, Nicola Sturgeon, then First Minister, issued a formal apology to the estimated 4,000 people (mostly women) who were accused, tortured, and killed. Organizations like the Witches of Scotland campaign have been instrumental in this. They argue that we can't move forward without acknowledging the specific misogyny that fueled cases like Janet’s.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Last Witch
There is a common misconception that Janet Horne was the last person accused of witchcraft. She wasn't. People were still being called witches in rural villages well into the 19th century. There were "duckings" and social shunnings. However, she was the last to be judicially executed by the state.
Another myth is that this happened in a vacuum of ignorance. It didn't. The people of Dornoch weren't "stupid." They were living in a period of intense social and economic transition. When things go wrong—crops fail, livestock die, or children are born with illnesses—humans look for a scapegoat. Janet Horne was the perfect target: she was old, she was mentally failing, and she was "different."
The Legacy of the 1727 Execution
Why does this matter now? It matters because the "Janet Horne" archetype still exists. We still see the "othering" of the vulnerable. We still see how easily a community can turn on one of its own when fear takes over.
If you're interested in the history of the Highlands, you can't just look at the battles and the tartans. You have to look at the smoke. The smoke from the tar barrel in Dornoch signaled the end of a terrifying era, but it also left a permanent scar on the Scottish psyche.
Actionable Steps for History Enthusiasts
If you want to dive deeper into this history or pay your respects to the victims of the trials, here is how to do it properly.
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Visit the Dornoch Historylinks Museum. They have excellent displays on local history and can provide the exact context for the social climate in the 1720s. They often have maps showing the location of the Witch’s Stone.
Consult the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft. This is an incredible database maintained by the University of Edinburgh. You can search by parish to see if your own ancestors or local area were involved in the trials. It’s a sobering way to see how widespread the panic actually was.
Read "The Scottish Witch-Hunt in Context" by Julian Goodare. If you want the academic reality without the sensationalism, this is the gold standard. It explains the legal and theological frameworks that allowed someone like Janet Horne to be killed legally.
Support the Memorial Movements. Follow groups like Witches of Scotland. They aren't just about history; they focus on how these historical patterns of persecution relate to modern-day issues like online harassment and gender-based violence.
The story of Janet Horne isn't a ghost story or a bit of Highland folklore. It’s a legal record of a failure of humanity. When you see the Witch's Stone, remember that the "bonny blaze" she saw wasn't a comfort—it was the result of a society that chose fear over compassion.
Practical Next Steps for Your Research
To get a full picture of the Scottish witch trials, your next step should be to look at the North Berwick Witch Trials of the 1590s. This was the era of King James VI, where the mania began in earnest. Comparing the state-sponsored mass trials of the 1590s to the isolated, almost "accidental" execution of Janet Horne in 1727 shows the full arc of the witchcraft phenomenon in Scotland. You can also visit the Witches' Well at Edinburgh Castle, a small bronze fountain that commemorates those who died at the stake on the Castle Hill. It’s a much more accessible site if you can’t make the trip all the way north to Dornoch.