Spellbinding map shows where witches once dwelled in Dundee, Tayside and Fife

Part of the interactive map showing where witches were said to have lived in Scotland.

Halloween is still a month away but for those keen to celebrate spooky season early a new map from digital researchers may be able to help.

Edinburgh University has created a map showing the approximate locations where women and men accused of witchcraft lived in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Where possible, the university’s “Witchfinder General” – undergraduate student Emma Carroll – has also tried to piece together records ascertaining their fates.

Education chiefs say the project is a way of demonstrating how data can be made visual and interesting for others.

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The information was sourced from historical records and uploaded to Wikidata – a database project from the team behind the Wikipedia online encyclopedia.

And the project has found 3,141 accused witches across Scotland, with scores to be found all over Tayside and Fife.

They include Grissell Jaffray, the last woman to be burned at the stake in Dundee in 1669, after being accused of being a “spaewife” – possessing the ability to see into the future.

She was strangled before being burned, according to records, and was allegedly buried at the Howff.

The Howff Graveyard is a famous part of Dundee’s history.

Dundee was also home to Margaret Coul, who was banished from the city for unknown crimes of alleged witchcraft.

Forfar, being as was it once a populous royal burgh, was also recorded as a residence for 18 accused witches.

They included Issobell Syrie, who made a demonic pact and renounced her baptism in 1661, and Helen Alexander, who was held in prison for 18 months without trial on charges of witchcraft.

The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Database also includes records of false accusations, such as that of Cruddal Watson from Tirseppie, a historical presbytery near Perth.

The blue plaque commemorating Grissell Jaffray in Peter Street, Dundee.

Ms Watson faced accusations of witchcraft in 1589 but the case was dropped and her accusers made to repent.

The university’s tool lists where alleged witches were tortured, including Perthshire’s hamlet of Rhynd, where at least four accused were subjected to sleep deprivation.

Ewan McAndrew, who headed up the study, said: “Emma did a lot of great detective work on this.”