A Tartan Has Been Designed In Honor Of The Witches Who Were Persecuted In Scotland
Thousands of people were executed under the Witchcraft Act in newly Protestant Scotland between 1563 and 1736.
The law condemned anyone who appeared to be working with the devil, although mostly women were targeted. Now, a new Scottish tartan is memorializing the victims of the Witchcraft Act.
In February, the black, gray, red, and pink pattern was officially registered with the Scottish Register of Tartans. Soon, it will be incorporated into kilts and other clothing pieces.
The tartan was designed by Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi. They founded the Witches of Scotland campaign in 2020.
They, along with their supporters, are requesting an apology, a pardon, and a national memorial to honor all those accused and convicted of witchcraft during the 173 years the law was in place.
In 2022, Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland, issued a formal apology to the Scots who were persecuted under the law. In addition, the Church of Scotland apologized for the major role it played in the witch hunt.
At first, Mitchell and Venditozzi wanted to build a monument in honor of the victims. They even studied similar monuments in other countries, such as the Salem Witch Trials Memorial in Massachusetts and the Steilneset Memorial in northern Norway.
However, they could not figure out where to put a monument in Scotland or how to raise the funds for it. While they were attending the opening of the “Tartan” exhibition at the V&A Dundee, they came up with the idea to create a tartan that honored those persecuted for witchcraft.
According to the Scottish Register of Tartans, a tartan design is composed of at least two alternating colored stripes woven together. The stripes are both horizontal and vertical, creating a checked pattern that closely resembles plaid.
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Traditionally, tartans are associated with different clans and families in Scotland, but anyone can create their own tartan and register it with the Scottish government.
The two women teamed up with Clare Campbell, the head of the tartan weaving mill in the village of Evanton in the Scottish Highlands, to design a pattern.
The black and gray colors stand for dark times and the ashes of those who were burned at the stake. The red symbolizes the blood of the victims, while pink represents the “legal tapes used to bind papers both during that time and now.”
The tartan’s thread count has meaning as well. The large black squares consist of 173 threads, which is the number of years the law was in effect.
The thinner lines of the tartan have 15 or 17 threads to represent the sum of the digits in the years the act was established and repealed—1563 and 1736, respectively.
The pink and red stripes are repeated three times, symbolizing the three goals of the Witches of Scotland campaign. Mitchel and Venditozzi hope to begin making kilts from the tartan as soon as May.
Overall, an estimated 2,500 Scots were killed under the act, and 85 percent of them were women, per the University of Edinburgh’s Survey of Scottish Witchcraft. The last execution under the act occurred in 1727. The law was repealed nine years later.
You can see the tartan here.
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