witch

Work was busy! It was good to be back, though.

When I got home, I took Jess down to Routin Brig for a swim. Above the waterfall, we found this witch hanging in the branches of a tree. It seemed ironic to find her here, at a place where in the 16th century, a woman suspected of being a witch was put in a barrel and thrown into the water, at the orders of the Bishop of Galloway, no less. The Church of Scotland (and the Scottish Government) have apologised for the persecution of thousand of women under the Scottish Witchcraft Act of 1563. There has been a call for a public monument to remember the nine women strangled and burned on the Whitesands in Dumfries in 1659.

While looking for material for this blip, I came across this clip of the lovely Susi Briggs her poem about Routin Brig. Something to make you smile on a dark November night :-)