In the spring of 1597, Margrat Og, a thirty-seven-year-old married woman residing in Mariewell, Lumphanan, found herself drawn into the intense judicial scrutiny that defined the Aberdeen witch trials of that year. Records indicate that her involvement with the local authorities was deepened by the testimonies of others, as she was formally denounced by both Beatrix Robbie and Margerat Bane. Central to the allegations brought against Margrat was the charge of participating in a witches’ meeting, an event reportedly attended by her two daughters. The dittay—the formal statement of the charges—linked her to a demonic pact and implicated her in acts of property damage, specifically concerning the harm of animals.
The legal proceedings moved with the characteristic celerity of the period. On April 24, 1597, Margrat faced trial in Aberdeen, where the court reached a verdict of guilty. Following the judgment, she was taken to the Hills, where she suffered the standard capital punishment for those convicted of witchcraft in Scotland: she was first strangled and then burned. While the records estimate her age at thirty-seven, the mention of her daughters being present at the gathering suggests she may have been older, marking the end of her life and the dissolution of her household amidst the broader, turbulent climate of sixteenth-century Scottish criminal justice.