Witches Well - Janet Douglas

Traditionally women were the healers. They prepared the medicines and remedies.. As men began to learn and discover more about medicine, they also sought to deprive women of their knowledge by branding many of them witches.

Wells were a meeting place for women. It was they who fetched the water for the household. During the witch hunts wells were one of the places where the (soon to be) victims were picked upon.

This well was also the site of a witch burning. James V had a grudge against the Douglas’s, not without good reason, for his mother Margaret Tudor had married one of them after James IV died. The Douglas family then tried to engineer a coup to give themselves complete power over James which had nearly succeeded.

Janet Douglas was the widow of the Earl of Glamis, and as such vulnerable to James’s grudge. He had her arrested along with her new husband and children. He eventually let the family go but had Janet burned as a witch at the well in 1537.

The plaque commemorates the innocent women who were branded witches and murdered.

A young woman with an interest in witchcraft has adopted 'The Witches Well' on the Castle Esplanade which commemorates the witches and warlocks condemned to death over the centuries.(City of Edinburgh Council notice 11th May 2000)

For further reading on Witchcraft see Edinburgh University survey - and the Guardian article that refers to it.