Witchcraft

The Witchcraft Trial of Lady Fowlis

Also known as: Katherine Ross, Lady Fowlis

Foulis Castle, near Evanton (trial held in Edinburgh)

Accusations 1576 to 1577; trial 22 July 1590

Accounts disagree about who Katherine was said to be trying to kill. One reading, in the Tain Museum's article, has her stepson as the target of the clay effigy and elf arrows. Another has her trying to remove Marjory Campbell, wife of her brother George Ross of Balnagown, so that he could marry again. The sources I found do agree that no new witnesses were called in 1590, the court relying on confessions extracted thirteen years earlier from people already dead.

One account says her husband obtained a commission to try thirty one witches from Ross and Inverness in 1578, and that all were found guilty. In Katherine's case, the Munro and Ross families could choose the jurors, and the verdict was never in doubt. The two practitioners named in one account, Marjory M'Alister, nicknamed Loskie Loutart, and William M'Gillivray, alias Dame, are said to have had different outcomes, with M'Gillivray sentenced to burn for supplying real poison. See the Tain and Chanonry records.

Foulis Castle is a private house.
Evidence
Contemporary written record
Access
No public access
Location
57.645, -4.365 (Sited to the building or field)

Sources: Tain and District Museum, Katherine Ross, Lady Fowlis, Trial by Fire (1590) [other]; Tales of Forgotten Scottish History, Witchcraft and Clan Rivalry [other]; Grand Journal, The Other Lady MacBeth [other]

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