11/03/2025
Nearly 300 years after the last ex*****on, Scotland has created an official tartan to memorialize the thousands of people -- overwhelmingly women -- who were persecuted and executed under the Scottish Witchcraft Act between 1563 and 1736. Created by Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi, founders of the Witches of Scotland campaign, the tartan serves as a "living memorial" to honor victims who were falsely accused of conspiring with the devil during Scotland's witch hunts. The design emerged after the duo struggled to find a suitable location and funding for a physical monument, eventually finding inspiration at a tartan exhibition that sparked the idea of creating a wearable memorial.
The black, red, gray, and pink tartan is rich with symbolism: the black and gray represent the dark times and ashes of those burned, the red represents the victims' blood, and the pink symbolizes the legal tape used to bind documents both then and now. Even the thread count carries meaning -- the large black squares contain 173 threads representing the years the law was in effect, while thinner lines have either 15 or 17 threads, representing the sum of digits in the years 1563 (when the act was implemented) and 1736 (when it was repealed). The red and pink stripes are repeated three times to symbolize the three goals of the Witches of Scotland campaign: a pardon, an apology, and a national memorial.
The Witchcraft Act was enacted in 1563, three years after Scotland declared Protestantism its official religion, and provided few details about what actually constituted witchcraft. Accused individuals were often tortured or sleep-deprived to extract confessions, and most convicted witches were strangled to death before being burned, with a small number burned alive. An estimated 2,500 Scots were killed under the act, with 85 percent of them women, according to the University of Edinburgh's Survey of Scottish Witchcraft.
While Scotland's former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon issued a formal apology in 2022, and the Church of Scotland also apologized for its historic role in the witch hunts, Mitchell and Venditozzi are continuing their campaign to seek an official pardon for all those who suffered under this brutal law. The tartan stands as a permanent living memorial, ensuring these victims are remembered with every thread.
-----
The Witches of Scotland campaign creators, Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi are the authors of a powerful new book "How to Kill a Witch: The Patriarchy's Guide to Silencing Women" which examines the inner workings of a patriarchal system, codified by the Witchcraft Act, designed to weaponize fear and oppress women. It's a captivating, infuriating, and often darkly humorous reminder of the dangers of superstition, bias, and ignorance, and a warning to never forget the past: https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9781464241222 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/3XfkiIJ (Amazon)
To learn more about the Witches of Scotland campaign, visit https://www.witchesofscotland.com/ -- and you can pre-order clothing with the new tartan design at https://witchesofscotland.myshopify.com/
For an excellent book about an 11-year-old girl who leads the drive to build a memorial to women accused of witchcraft in her Scottish town, we highly recommend "A Kind of Spark" for ages 9 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/kind-of-spark
For a Newbery Award-winning novel about a teen girl who stands up against witch hysteria and mob mentality in early colonial America, we highly recommend “The Witch of Blackbird Pond” for ages 9 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/the-witch-of-blackbird-pond
For more books for children and teens about Mighty Girls taking a stand against hate and prejudice of many kinds, visit our blog post, "Standing Together: 50 Mighty Girl Books Celebrating Diversity and Acceptance” at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=13481
