In the spring of 1597, the city of Aberdeen became the site of a significant legal proceeding involving a woman of humble socioeconomic status named Marioun Wod. A nurse by trade, Marioun was often identified by her contemporaries as the "Catness norische," an epithet that suggests her origins may have been in the far north of Scotland, specifically Caithness, or perhaps that she was of Gaelic or Irish descent. Her life as a caregiver placed her in intimate contact with the households of the city, yet on 15 April 1597, she found herself brought before the authorities to answer for the grave charge of witchcraft.
Marioun stood trial alongside three other individuals, though the specific nature of the accusations levied against her—and indeed the final verdict rendered by the court—remain absent from the surviving judicial record. Throughout the proceedings held on that April day, Marioun maintained a firm stance, categorically denying the charges brought against her. Despite the gravity of the accusations and the atmosphere surrounding the trials of that era, the records preserve only this brief glimpse of her confrontation with the law, leaving the ultimate fate of the nurse from the north to the silence of history.