Witchcraft

The Girl Who Sank the Ships, Mull

A hill above the Sound of Mull

Recorded 1902

A farmer and his little daughter were walking along an eminence overlooking the Sound of Mull, through which a number of ships were passing. The girl asked what he would give her if she sank them all, stooped and looked backwards between her legs at one of the vessels, and it whirled round and sank. She did the same for each ship in sight except one, which she could not touch because it had rowan-tree wood on board. She told her father it was her mother who taught her. The man, who was a good man and had not known of his wife's dabbling in witchcraft, gathered his neighbours and burned mother and daughter.

There is no date, no name and no record of any such burning, so this is a legend not a case. The Bute trials of 1662 are the nearest documented witchcraft cases in the area.

This site is private property or has no public access. Coordinates shown are rounded and no directions are offered.
Evidence
Dubious
Access
No public access
Location
56.563, -5.954 (Parish-level only, treat as an area)

Sources: John Gregorson Campbell, Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (1902), Project Gutenberg [public-domain]

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