Kate McNiven of Monzie

Monzie, Perthshire, Scotland

Rolled downhill in a barrel and burned on the Knock of Crieff, Kate McNiven threw a blue stone to a young laird as she died — a charm his family is said to keep to this day.

Kate McNiven — also recorded as Kate Nike Neiving or Catharine Niven — is remembered in Perthshire tradition as a healer and nurse in service to the House of Inchbrakie, in the parish of Monzie near Crieff. She was said to have lived in a cave and to possess the power to shapeshift into a bee. Local tradition holds that she was tried and convicted of witchcraft, and executed on the Knock of Crieff, a hill close to her cave home — sealed into a barrel and rolled down the slope before being burned to ensure her death. As the flames took her, she is said to have thrown a small blue charm-stone to the young Laird of Inchbrakie, who had shown her some past kindness, promising that his line would always have sons and hold their land for as long as the stone was kept. In the same breath she is said to have cursed the town of Monzie's officials, condemning the town never to prosper. The traditional execution date most often given is 1615, though this is not securely fixed — sources place the event anywhere from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, and no primary trial record for Kate McNiven survives; she does not appear in the modern Survey of Scottish Witchcraft database compiled from surviving court documents. She is, in other words, real as folklore — vivid, specific, and long-remembered locally — without being verifiable as documented history. The Witches Stone near Crieff still commemorates her today.

Folklore Disclaimer: These accounts are drawn from local tradition, oral history, and community memory. They are not presented as factual claims.

Location accuracy: Approximate. Coordinates indicate the general area.