The Witches of Fife: Witch-Hunting in a Scottish Shire, 1560-1710

Along the coast of Fife, in villages like Culross and Pittenweem, history records that some women were executed as witches. Nevertheless, the reality of what happened the night that Janet Cornfoot was lynched at Pittenweem is hard to grasp as one sits by the harbour watching the fishing boats unload their catch and the pleasure boats rising with the tide.

How could people do this to an old woman? Why was no-one ever brought to justice? And why would anyone defend such a lynching? The task o...