Witch Hunt

BBC Radio Scotland

4.3 (27)
HISTORY

From the 16th to the early 18th centuries, witch hunts took place in Scotland. In this podcast series Susan Morrison, along with Dr Louise Yeoman and a team of expert historians, explores how events aligned to allow this to happen. How did it get to the stage where many innocent people, mostly women, were executed for imaginary crimes

01/26/2024

Introducing House of the Lion: A Blood Soaked Throne

Susan Morrison and Len Pennie explore what it takes to be King in medieval Scotland, where ruthlessness and brutality where qualities at the top of the job description.

3 min
12/05/2019

Satan's Last Hurrah! Demonic possession and the end of the hunt

The Devil was loose in Scotland possessing frightened youngsters - or was he? Susan Morrison and Louise Yeoman find what our historians think was going on

37 min
11/28/2019

Peak Witch Hunt

Scotland carried out five times more executions per capita for witchcraft than the European average but how did people come to believe in such a thing and what did they believe about it? Our top-notch panel of Scottish historians are here to take you deep into the psyche of the 16th and 17th century, along with our hosts Susan Morrison and Louise Yeoman. This time - how do we get to peak witch-hunt? The civil wars and political upsets of the mid-17th century led to a swell of Scottish pride in being one of the Godliest societies on earth, ruled by an ancient royal dynasty. They also saw the two biggest witch-hunts in Scottish history. Witch-hunting on such a scale was partly fuelled by the rise of the professional witch-finder - the witch-pricker, but it also contained the seeds of its own demise as the dodgy methods of the witch-finders and the local communities who employed them came to the ears of increasingly sceptical men of law.

35 min
11/21/2019

Quarrels, Women and Bad Magic

Curses and quarrels abound as Susan Morrison and Louise Yeoman investigate Scotland's war on witches and witchcraft with the help of a team of expert historians.

33 min
11/14/2019

Friends of the Fairies

The witchcraft trials were one of the biggest injustices in Scotland’s history, a massive miscarriage of justice, but how did people come to believe in such a thing and what did they believe about it? Our panel of Scottish historians are here to take you deep into the psyche of the 16th and 17th centuries, along with our hosts Susan Morrison and Louise Yeoman. This time we find out about beliefs in fairies, spirit guides, charms and ritual objects. While the elite believed in the witches’ sabbath and the demonic pact, it wasn’t necessarily the case that ordinary people did. Efforts to make ordinary people confess to witchcraft led to them telling all kinds of interesting stories. People accused of witchcraft meet the dead, go into fairy hills, worry about being sent as sacrifices to Hell, hang out with the Queen and King of the fairies, deliver fairy children, lose their own… Often these people are healers and diviners - able to tell the future, to tell who is riding with the fairies, to cure cattle and people. But to the Kirk, what they are up to is suspicious and can lead to a witch-trial.

33 min
11/07/2019

Abuses of Justice

Digging deeper into Scotland's war on witches and witchcraft with Susan Morrison, Louise Yeoman talking to a team of top historians.

34 min
10/30/2019

The King and the Witches' Sabbath

Introducing Scotland's war on witches and witchcraft with Susan Morrison and Louise Yeoman talking to a team of top historians about the role of King James in witch trials.

31 min
10/21/2019

Welcome to Witch Hunt

From the 16th to the early 18th centuries, witch hunts took place in Scotland. In this podcast series Susan Morrison, along with Dr Louise Yeoman and a team of expert historians, explores how events aligned to allow this to happen. How did it get to the stage where many innocent people, mostly women, were executed for imaginary crimes?

3 min

8 Episodes

4.3

out of 5

27 Ratings

This is a great podcast except for episode two and Dr. Michele Brock’s comments…

08/22/2020

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Very interesting podcast taking a deep dive into the witch hunts that took place in Scotland. I’m enjoying this except for the comments of Dr. Michelle Brock who said “...Society has anxieties about the future and we look for people to scapegoat. We look for, still today, people to demonize and people in positions of power stroke their fears.” She then astonishingly calls up Russian bots to support her belief instead of bringing up Trump claiming Mexican immigrants “...are bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists...” If there is a better example of people in power attempting to stoke fear in the masses, that was it. Not Russian bots. Unbelievable. Seriously, Michelle, your true colors are showing. I hope the next guests won’t be so obvious in their political beliefs.
Amazing podcast

12/29/2022

👐🏻🫵🏻

I love it so much I’m Scottish so sorry for all the women that were killed

From the 16th to the early 18th centuries, witch hunts took place in Scotland. In this podcast series Susan Morrison, along with Dr Louise Yeoman and a team of expert historians, explores how events aligned to allow this to happen. How did it get to the stage where many innocent people, mostly women, were executed for imaginary crimes