In the spring of 1643, the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials descended upon the burgh of Culross, Fife, marking the records of the local judiciary with the case of Catherine Rowane. On the 5th of March, Catherine was formally entered into the judicial register under case reference C/EGD/2284. At a time when the Kirk and the state were increasingly preoccupied with the perceived threat of maleficium, her residence in this coastal town placed her within a community where social tensions were frequently mediated through the accusations of the witchcraft commissions.
The historical documentation regarding Catherine remains focused on this single procedural entry, reflecting the bureaucratic formality with which these investigations were conducted. While the specific charges brought against her in this 1643 inquiry are not preserved in the extant notes, the record serves as a testament to her entanglement with the Scottish legal system during the mid-seventeenth century. Catherine occupies a place in the historical narrative of the era not through detailed accounts of her daily life, but as an identified subject within the wider, systemic scrutiny of the period’s witch hunts.