EDINBURGH, Scotland – A new museum dedicated to magic, witchcraft, and fortune telling has opened in Edinburgh, off the city’s High Street. The launch of the appropriately named, Museum of Magic, Fortune-telling & Witchcraft took place last week under the curatorship of Ash William Mills, a writer and former student of Scottish ethnology and history at the University of Edinburgh.
Ash William Mills, founder and curator of The Museum of Magic, Fortune-telling & Witchcraft Image credit: Iain Tom
The Wild Hunt has reported previously on efforts among Scottish Pagans and Witches to secure apologies to, and highlight the plight of, the many people executed for witchcraft in Scotland (who were mainly, but not exclusively, women). These efforts have been a series of ongoing projects across Scotland, like the one in Dalkeith in 2020. And in 2018 TWH covered the establishment of the memorial in Kirkwall in Orkney, dedicated to those local women who died in the witch trials. A ‘Kirkwall Witchy Walk’ was also set up in 2015, by Fran Flett Hollinrake, working with the UHI Centre for Nordic Studies.
Progress has definitely been made – the issue has increased in visibility over the past few years. On International Women’s Day a year ago, Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s outgoing first minister, made the following statement:
“At a time when women were not even allowed to speak as witnesses in a courtroom, they were accused and killed because they were poor, different, vulnerable or in many cases just because they were women. It was injustice on a colossal scale, driven at least in part by misogyny in its most literal sense, hatred of women. Today on International Women’s Day, as first minister on behalf of the Scottish government, I am choosing to acknowledge that egregious historic injustice and extend a formal posthumous apology to all of those accused, convicted, vilified or executed under the Witchcraft Act of 1563.”
Memorials elsewhere in Scotland, for instance in Paisley and Forfar, have also been established in recent years. Further south in Lancashire, the Pendle witch trials have been commemorated, with a statue of Alice Nutter, accused of witchcraft and murdered by hanging – one of the many women who suffered from allegations of witchcraft in the region.
The Wild Hunt has also highlighted work done by the University of Edinburgh on the Scottish Witchcraft Survey and a new map connected to this project. Researchers spent three months examining the historical evidence and compiling the interactive map, which shows where 3000 of Scotland’s witches were accused, tried, and executed.
Historian Ronald Hutton told TWH that there were 1100 to 2500 executions and “there is no consensus there on […] the most probable result” (compared to 500 of the accused executed in England, and a definite 5 in Wales).
Museum of Magic, Fortune-telling & Witchcraft exhibit – Image credit: Iain Tom
The new museum treats these tragic events as a focus. Mills told the local press that:
“It’s going brilliant so far. We have had quite a lot of visitors, with a lot of them saying ‘why have we not had this museum before?’ One of our main focuses is witchcraft, and in particular the witch trials from 1590-1662 when Scotland had the third highest death rate for witches in Europe, only behind Switzerland and Germany, when 4000 people were executed here for witchcraft. So you can see the extent of how bleak it was during that period.
“That’s quite a lot of deaths for a country like Scotland as the population was lower back then compared to now, and much lower than England. From the reformation onwards that’s when the big craze started. The North Berwick witch trials started things off in 1590 when King James VI blamed witches for storms he faced returning by ship from Denmark.
“We focus on three main categories in magic. It starts with the witch trials and the history that was involved, along with some replica torture devices, then moves into folk magic like charms and spells that still persist today. We also focus on protection magic, which was quite popular until the 20th century. We have a mummified cat and a mummified rat, which would have been used to protect properties. Particularly cats, as they were seen as not only having nine lives but also possessing a sixth sense.”
He added, “I hope to bring awareness. Last year there was the witches pardon by the Scottish Government and the Church of Scotland also apologised. I want to bring understanding and raise awareness of Scotland’s rich heritage of magic that still goes on today and bring that unique world to Edinburgh. With Harry Potter being so big in Edinburgh if someone wants to see the reality of witchcraft and magic they should come here.”
Mills continued, “The museum is not a spook fest. It’s a respectable museum with artefacts from over the centuries about magic and witch hunting in Scotland. My partner and I set-up this place by ourselves. It took two and a half months to set-up with my own personal collection I have built up over the past 15 years, so my flat is cleared out! And I have picked up some more stuff recently donated.”
Museum of Magic, Fortune-telling & Witchcraft exhibit – Image credit: Iain Tom
“It’s nice to share it all with the public and not keep it to myself. I want visitors here to have an experience like they are stepping back in time and our location in an old close in Edinburgh’s Old Town is perfect. I instantly fell in love with this place. The foundations were built in the 17th century and the rest is late Victorian, so the look and feel of the place goes well with the story, which starts in the 17th century with the witch hunts. It’s perfect,” Mills said.
The Museum of Magic, Fortune-telling & Witchcraft is open Tuesday to Friday 11:00 am to 7:00 pm, 7:00 am – 7:00 pm on Saturdays, and 11:00 am to 7:00 pm on Sundays, and closed on Mondays.
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