On 12 November 1597, Christian Saidler of Blackhous, Edinburgh, faced the high court to answer for charges of witchcraft. The legal proceedings, recorded under case file C/EGD/133, centered on allegations that Christian had participated in a witches’ meeting, an accusation that carried grave implications within the judicial climate of late sixteenth-century Scotland. In addition to her attendance at these illicit gatherings, the indictment included specific claims regarding property damage, specifically related to the destruction of a dairy.
Following the trial (T/LA/42), Christian was found guilty of the charges brought against her. In accordance with the judicial practices of the era, the court passed a sentence of execution. She was taken to Castle Hill in Edinburgh, where she underwent the prescribed method of punishment: she was first strangled and then burned. This conclusion to the proceedings remains a documented instance of the legal mechanisms employed during the intense period of witch-hunting that gripped Scotland at the close of the sixteenth century.