The Witch Trial of Bessie Dunlop

Lyne, Ayrshire, Scotland

Bessie Dunlop of Ayrshire claimed her healing knowledge came from the Queen of the Fairies and a dead soldier. She was tried for witchcraft in 1576 and burned.

Bessie Dunlop of Ayr was a healer and wise woman whose trial in 1576 is one of the most detailed and unusual in Scottish witch trial records, principally because of her own explanations for her abilities. Bessie was well regarded locally. She cured illness, found lost property, and offered advice that was consistently accurate enough that people travelled to her from beyond her immediate community. When arrested and tried, she did not deny her abilities — only their source. She claimed that her knowledge came from the court of Elfhame, the fairy realm. Specifically, she said she had been visited by a man named Thom Reid — a soldier who had died at the Battle of Pinkie in 1547 — who appeared to her while she lay ill after childbirth and offered to become her guide and instructor. He brought her into the fairy court periodically, where she learned her healing arts. The details Bessie gave were precise and consistent across multiple interrogations. She described the court's inhabitants, their clothing, their movements. She described Thom Reid's appearance in the same terms every time. The court did not find this a mitigating explanation. She was found guilty of sorcery and witchcraft, and burned at the stake. Her case is remarkable for what it reveals about the overlap, in 16th-century Scotland, between fairy belief and witchcraft accusation — and for how matter-of-factly she spoke about the fairy court, as though describing a place anyone might visit if they only knew the way.