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Witches' Well, Edinburgh
The Witches' Well is a monument to accused witches burned at the stake in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the only one of its kind in the city.[1] The memorial drinking fountain is attached to a wall at the lower end of the Castle Esplanade, below Edinburgh Castle, and located close to where many witches were burned at the stake.[2] During the high point of witch hunting in the early modern period, 32% of accused witches came from the Lothian area.[3] Design and historyThe well was commissioned by Sir Patrick Geddes in 1894, and designed by Geddes' friend John Duncan.[4][5] The bronze relief features a foxglove plant, a snake curled around the heads of Hygeia, the Greek goddess of good health, and her father Aesculapius, god of medicine.[5] Other parts of the well feature trees, healing hands, and the evil eye. The water spout, now dry, is located beneath the snake's head.[5] In the top left and bottom right are the Roman numerals for the years 1479 and 1722 respectively, the time period during which most witches were persecuted in Scotland.[5] The model for the Well is held by the City Art Centre in Edinburgh.[6]
The building upon which it is affixed (now containing the Tartan Weaving Mill) was built in 1851, for the Castlehill Reservoir.[4][7][5] The 1851 building replaced its 17th-century predecessor, constructed when act of parliament in 1624 enabled the bringing of fresh water into the city from the nearby Pentland Hills.[8][9] In 1674 the reservoir was connected to 12 wells around the city, eventually closing in 1992, and converted into the Tartan Mill in 1996.[8][9] There have been repeated calls for a newer, permanent memorial to those accused as witches. In 2016, Edinburgh World Heritage called for a new memorial for Edinburgh, and in 2017, Dr Julian Goodare of the University of Edinburgh and Professor Lynn Abrams of the University of Glasgow called for a new memorial for Scotland.[10][3] In 2019 those calls were repeated by Dr Goodare and Louise Yeomans, as directors of the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft.[11] Plaque and inscriptionThe plaque above the fountain was mounted on the wall in 1912.[12] The inscription reads:
The inscription has been criticised for historical inaccuracy, in the assumption that those killed had magical powers.[3] References
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