Every Witch Way

Ventured out of the 'Shire today, up into, over and around the back of the Ochil Hills along bumpy and pot holey single track roads. Stopped off for lunch at a soup themed shopping outlet and had... a Panini, and resisted the temptation of the Whisky Distillery shop next door. Intended a nice circuit around the the hills from there but the road was closed just past the monument here and we ended up on a zig-zaggy diversion almost back along the way we'd came in.

We'd passed this monument a couple of times before but never stopped to investigate, but the sun was shining and there was a spot to park up, so this time we did. Bit of an oddity, not maintained by any organisation such as Historic Scotland or the National Trust, and unique in that there's nothing like it anywhere else in Scotland. The hand-painted inscription, that's refreshed regularly but secretively, 'Maggie Wall burnt here 1657 as a witch' is not backed up by any historical records, even though there were many other documented executions in the area around that time of women accused and found guilty of witchcraft. But the monument is littered with coins and other trinkets left by visitors and, after a bit of googling, there seems to be numerous stories as to who she may have been and the significance of why she has been singled out and commemorated in this way.

Whatever the true story is behind the folly it made for an intriguing stop-off before the miserable inevitability of the weekly shopping hell. Wished there was a witch's spell I could cast to avoid that one.