GLASGOW, Scotland – A new Scottish tartan has been created to honor the thousands of people—primarily women—executed for witchcraft in Scotland between the 16th and 18th centuries. The Witches of Scotland is a movement seeking “Justice for people accused and convicted under the Witchcraft Act 1563-1736”
The Witches of Scotland tartan is part of a campaign to recognize what advocates call one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in the nation’s history. The design was registered on February 11, 2025, on the Scottish Register of Tartans. The new tartan design will serve as a living memorial to those persecuted under the Witchcraft Act.
The official “Witches of Scotland” tartan design as registered in The Scottish Register of Tartans.
The tartan was developed by Witches of Scotland founders Claire Mitchell KC and Zoe Venditozzi, inspired by the V&A Dundee’s Tartan exhibition. “It was an amazing event—everyone expressing their own history and identity through their tartans,” Mitchell told The Herald. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t this be a great way to create a living memorial?’”
Designed by Clare Campbell, founder of the Prickly Thistle tartan mill, the appropriately gothic pattern carries symbolic meaning. Its black and grey tones reflect the darkness of the era and the ashes of those burned. Red signifies bloodshed, while pink represents the legal tapes binding trial documents then and now. The thread count encodes the years 1563 and 1736 (1+5+6+3 = 15 and 1+7+3+6 = 17), with these numbers woven into black and grey bands surrounding a white check of three threads—symbolizing the campaign’s three objectives: securing a pardon, an apology, and memorials. The 173 black threads in the tartan’s squares represent the 173 years the Witchcraft Act was in force.
The North Berwick witches from a contemporary pamphlet, Newes From Scotland.
Since its founding in 2020, Witches of Scotland has campaigned for justice, seeking a legal pardon, a formal apology, and a national monument for those convicted and executed. In 2022, on International Women’s Day, then-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon acknowledged the historic injustice, issuing a formal apology on International Women’s Day.
In her initial apology, Nicola Sturgeon outlined the importance of this gesture:
Firstly, acknowledging injustice, no matter how historic is important. This parliament has issued, rightly so, formal apologies and pardons for the more recent historic injustices suffered by gay men and by miners.
Second, for some, this is not yet historic. There are parts of our world where even today, women and girls face persecution and sometimes death because they have been accused of witchcraft.
And thirdly, fundamentally, while here in Scotland the Witchcraft Act may have been consigned to history a long time ago, the deep misogyny that motivated it has not. We live with that still. Today it expresses itself not in claims of witchcraft, but in everyday harassment, online rape threats and sexual violence.
Despite this acknowledgment, no official pardon has yet been granted.
MSP Natalie Don later launched a consultation on posthumous pardons, noting that around 2,500 people—85% of them women—were convicted under the Witchcraft Act. Efforts to introduce a private member’s bill stalled when Don became a minister, but Mitchell and her team remain hopeful it will be revived.
Proceeds from sales will support charity efforts, furthering the campaign’s mission. Mitchell sees it as a conversation starter: “Everywhere you go, people ask, ‘Is that your tartan?’ Those who wear ours can say, ‘Yes, this tartan remembers all those persecuted and killed,’ and share their stories.”
Linking the campaign to contemporary issues, Mitchell referenced Margaret Atwood’s warning that witch-hunting rhetoric signals growing threats to women’s rights. “When women are called witches, it sounds an alarm for persecution. That’s why what we’re doing is so relevant,” she said.
The tartan has already garnered international interest, particularly in the United States.
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