Poltergeists and Warlocks

Published: Oct. 28, 2020, 2 p.m.

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In winter when the nights were fair drawing in and the wind and rain howling outside, there was nothing Scots of yesteryear liked better than to gather round the fire with their pals and tell tales of devils and warlocks and ghosts and ghouls. We don't have a crackling fire for our spooky supernatural special, but we do have Susan Morrison's front room and a posse of historians on the couch to tell us tales of poltergeists, witches, devils and hellfire. Dr Martha McGill has stories about things that go bump in the night in Darkest Leith. Dr Mark Jardine has a tale from Galloway of Covenanting ministers, devils and a bold atheist beggar. Ciaran Jones of Edinburgh University tells us about the servant girl in Irvine who claimed to have raised the Devil and Dr Louise Yeoman revisits the ghastly tale of Major Thomas Weir 'the warlock' and his downfall.

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