Witchcraft

The Devil at the Auld Kirk, North Berwick

Auld Kirk Green, North Berwick harbour

Halloween 1590, as alleged

The pamphlet Newes from Scotland, printed in London in 1591, gives the fullest early account. It says that when the witches tarried at the kirk the Devil, in the habit or likeness of a man, demanded that they kiss his buttocks as a sign of duty to him. Agnes Sampson is reported to have told her interrogators that some 200 people were present, Geillis Duncan among them.

The number and the details are not independent evidence. Sampson was held at Holyroodhouse and examined by the king's men, and other accused people described the same gathering only after torture. Wikipedia notes that around 100 people were arrested in connection with the case. The Devil at North Berwick belongs to the demonological ideas James VI and his advisers already held, and the pamphlet was printed for an English readership.

The kirk itself is real. St Andrew's Auld Kirk stands near the harbour on the green, and its porch survives. It is the best known site tied to the trials and is in a public space beside the shore. The location pin is approximate and placed on the harbour side.

Evidence
Disputed or debunked
Access
Open ground
Location
56.060, -2.713 (Parish-level only, treat as an area)

Sources: Wikipedia, "Newes from Scotland" [other]; Mysterious Britain & Ireland, "North Berwick" [other]; Wikipedia, "North Berwick witch trials" [other]

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