This Witches' Stane lies immediately by the roadside within a small fenced enclosure, just to the South of Spott.
Witches' Stane, Spott
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This is a rather rough-hewn squarish stone measuring around 22" along each axis, and often partially obscured by undergrowth.
The Witches' Stane
It allegedly marks the place at which Marion Lillie, known as the Rigwoody or Ringwoodie Witch, was burnt in 1698, but the area around Spott was notorious for its witch burnings in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Indeed, East Lothian in general was infamous during this period, with towns such as Haddington, Tranent and North Berwick also being involved in some of the more well-publicised witch trials. Many commentaries claim that Lillie was the last witch to be burnt in Scotland, but this is clearly not the case, as can be seen from the Kirk Session Records, as quoted by Rev. John Martin in the late eighteenth century:
1698. The session, after a long examination of witnesses, refer the case of Marion Lillie, for imprecations and supposed witchcraft, to the presbytery, who refer her for trial to the civil magistrate. — Said Marion, generally called the Rigwoody Witch.
Oct. 1705. Many witches burnt on the top of Spott loan.[1]
However, Lillie's association with this tone appears to be of more recent invention, since in 1836, we find the Rev. Robert Burns Thomson quoting the above passage and then continuing thus:
It is generally believed, that the last witch who was executed in Scotland was burnt at Spott; a stone commemorative of the event, and marking the place of execution, is to be seen a little way to the east of the manse.[2]
From this, we can see both that the last witch was not Lillie, and thus the stone was not necessarily associated with her, or at least her alone. It should also be mentioned that almost every parish in the country has a legend about "the last witch burnt in Scotland" being a local!
The Witches' Stane, Showing Burnt Candle-wax
Interestingly, the idea of this stone as commemorative of a victim of the witch burnings still seems to resonate with local Wiccans, since when we visited this site (shortly after Lammas 2002), it had obviously been involved in some form of ritual involving candles and incense, the remains of which were clearly visible (see above). It would seem that witchcraft is alive and well in East Lothian to this day, despite the numerous burnings which followed the Civil Wars!
footnotes
[1] John Martin, "Parish of Spott", in The Statistical Account of Scotland (Edinburgh: Creech, 1791-99), Vol.5, pp.454-455.
[2] Rev. Robert Burns Thomson, "Parish of Spott", in The New Statistical Account of Scotland (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1834-45), Vol.2, p.227.