The Western Gate

Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland
John Gregorson Campbell
Jon Daniels Publishing

A roulette of a purchase, based purely on the title. Foundation for more ancestral searching with regards to my Paternal Grandmothers side~ The Mackays from Nairnshire.
This book a reprint, copyright free, thus – book on demand and mercenary no doubt. Which you can also source here for free ;- 1902 Version
Our sideburned Victorian author ? Presbyterian no less, and so the language used is as expected~ All witches are in conspiracy with the Devil, blasphemers all, and every act to relinquish them and ultimately to reign them in invariably involves recital of the ‘holy book’. which is strange, that the very people who do not accept the gospel, are apparently vanquished by it.
But we know this, we’ve read books from this era, when men walked with top hats and stiff canes to brutally cast aside waifs and strays back to the gutter, home where the oppressed housewife has dinner on table, and hopes and prays it is to his masters satisfaction.
However let us also cast aside our prejudgement as Johnny boy didn’t, John Campbell was an avid collector of folktales and lore, perhaps he will illicit some sympathy and compassion if nothing else to the poor cunning of the Scottish wilderness lands

Milk snatchers, Milk Spoilers and Wind Caressers. Shapeshifters. Hedge Riders. Cursers and Healers, And they’re afraid of Rowan (Mountain Ash) though John Boy Campbell doesn’t tell us why? A sneaking suspicion it may be the berries pentagram acting as an apotropaic (a thing believed to ward off evil). Who knows, a few swift strokes in the air with a Rowan wand will have the dastardly witch cowering for cover.

The majority of the text henceforth reads much like a browse through the snippets of Fortean times, little paragraphs of incidents. Mostly campfire summaries of Hares and foxes being shot at with silver bullets and simultaneously Old Mother Whatnot has exact same wounds appearing on her body. Shapeshifting is after all the Olde trait. the Mabinogion full of tales of shapeshifting as alike Uther Pendragon using Merlin’s craft to win the affection of Igraine, by deceit and glamouring.
It is then a collection of whispers, worthy for light reading but doesn’t really send my spirit into the heart of the islands and highlands of Scotland.
The second half of the book deals with sight, second sight, viz: “The vision of the world of sense is one sight and the other of spirit “. And again more titbit entries making the whole book an anthology more than a study.
The book concludes with notes on the Celtic calendar year, as probably read in numerous books and via a chapter on,…. hobgoblins…
For my part, there was no mention of Nairn, the Moray, the Clan Mackay, there is also nothing in regards to Isobel Gowdie or Janet Horne whose names are mentioned with regards to Scotland and witchcraft in the same vain as the back of the settee and Dr.Who. But not here.
It is, a curious book, one that can be flicked through, albeit and unfortunately without the addition of an index which would’ve saved me the time to pursue any leads to ancestral leanings, and would be handy to easily find subjects for use in a later date, as this book is more a reference source. The plethora of indents and recollections being a jumble sale pile of old clothes to wade through, hopefully to find something.
It should be noted, that whatever we (No, just you Dave ) think of J.G.Campbell, that he has collected and collated material into this scrap book, it is valuable as it would probably be lost in history. So credit to him, and anyone that likewise Busies themselves as a magpie to hunt the shinning examples of discarded treasure.

Supplement:

below then compiled in similar to satisfy my angst. It is with heartfelt sorrow that one MacKay herein is ‘accused’ of the murder of a witch, given the hysteria regarding witches, shouldn’t he have been given a medal? The first tale, of Janet Horne is included given that it occurred in the lands bordering the Mackays and the (spits) Sutherlands.

From : Witch-Hunting and Witch Belief in the Gàidhealtachd : Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic ;-

In 1727, an old woman from Loth in Sutherland was brought before a blazing fire in Dornoch. The woman, traditionally known as Janet Home, warmed herself, thinking the fire had been lit to take the chill from her bones and not, as was actually intended, to burn her to death. Or so the story goes. This case is well known as the last example of the barbarous practice of burning witches in Scotland. It is also infamous for some of its more unusual characteristics — such as the alleged witch ‘having ridden upon her own daughter’, whom she had ‘transformed into a pony’, and of course, the memorable image of the poor, deluded soul warming herself while the instruments of her death were being prepared. Impressive materials, though the most familiar parts of the story did not appear in print until at least 92 years after the event!¹ Ironically, although Gaelic-speaking Scotland has been noted for the relative absence of formal witch persecutions, it has become memorable as the part of Scotland that punished witches later than anywhere else.

addendum:-

Janet Horne was an elderly woman from the Scottish Highlands who became the last person legally executed for witchcraft in Britain, in 1727 at Dornoch.

The accusations against her were bizarre even by the standards of the time. Neighbours claimed that she had transformed her daughter into a pony, ridden her to meet the Devil, and had the Devil shoe her like a horse. Her daughter had physical deformities in her hands and feet, and Janet herself appears to have been elderly, confused, and possibly suffering from dementia. These conditions were interpreted as evidence of witchcraft.

Janet and her daughter were arrested and quickly tried. Both were found guilty, but her daughter managed to escape. Janet was stripped, covered in tar, paraded through the town, and then burned alive.

Today, historians generally regard her as an innocent victim of superstition, fear, and prejudice rather than a “witch.” Her case is especially tragic because it happened so late—during the Enlightenment, when belief in witchcraft was already declining elsewhere. Less than a decade after her death, Britain’s witchcraft laws were repealed.

The Curious Case of Donald Mackay and the Uncanny Hare

In 1738 Donald Mackay of Kirkton was a road man working on roads of Sutherland. It is said that one day he was busy repairing a road near Dunrobin Castle when he was startled by a hare. The hare jumped from the bushes and with a knee jerk reaction, Donald beat the poor hare with his spade. Somehow the mangled hare escaped into the bushes. That same day an old woman was found beaten to death in her kitchen, the wounds sustained were synonymous with being beaten with a spade.
Donald Mackay was arrested and taken before the Regality Court at Evelix, Dornoch accused of murdering the old lady. Regality Courts were the courts of the local Barony and held as much authority as the Kings Sherriff.

Donald protested his innocence claiming that he had merely killed a hare, but rumours abounded that the woman who was found dead in her kitchen had been a witch. People assumed that the shape shifting witch had been out for a walk in the guise of an uncanny hare and had been beaten by Donald. She must have found her way back to her home before dying on the kitchen floor transformed once more into human form.
The Court found Donald guilty of murder and sentenced him to death by hanging. On pronouncing the sentence, a candle was snuffed out symbolising the end of Donald Mackay’s life. He was taken to Cnoc an Crie (Gallows Hill) in Dornoch for the sentence to be fulfilled. Before being hanged, it is said that Donald danced the Highland Fling at the foot of the gallows to show his contempt for the authorities.
In 1736, the Act of Parliament that had seen hundreds of men and women accused of witchcraft executed was repealed. Therefore, had the old lady been found beaten to death in her kitchen just 2 years earlier, Donald would have been praised for his actions in ridding Sutherland of a witch.
Perhaps Donald, like many other people at the time, was still superstitious about witchcraft and took the law into his own hands. Whether he was innocent or guilty he paid dearly for beating the hare that crossed his path that morning.
Donald was the last person to be executed in Dornoch and it has been said that from time to time the ghostly apparition of a hare can be seen hopping along Earls Cross Road on the way to Gallows Hill 

Header Image: Taken from Landscape in Scotland 1878 by Gustave Dore