28/10/2026
History Wednesday 🫶
I came across this and thought it was such a beautiful tribute to the memory of those who suffered, and I wanted to share it with you.
Woven in the Highlands by Clare Campbell and the Prickly Thistle mill, this is no ordinary tartan. Every thread carries a story.
Black and grey for the dark years, and for the ashes of those who burned.
Red and pink for the legal tape that once bound their court papers.
In the great black squares lie 173 threads, one for every year Scotland's Witchcraft Act held sway, from 1563 to 1736.
The finer lines run with 15 and 17 threads, the digits of those two years gathered together.
And through it all, a three-thread check for three quiet hopes: a pardon, an apology, and a memorial.
Around 4,000 souls were accused. Some 2,500 were put to death, most of them women. Many were tortured, or kept from sleep for days on end, before they were strangled and burned.
A living memorial, woven in wool.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine, "See the new tartan pattern created to honor women accused of witchcraft in Scotland between 1563 and 1736"
