In the spring of 1649, Marget McKirdy, a resident of Bute, became the subject of a legal proceeding that remains preserved in the judicial archives as case C/EGD/2368. On March 27, 1649, she was formally brought before the authorities to face accusations of witchcraft. The records pertaining to Marget offer a glimpse into the localized legal climate of mid-seventeenth-century Scotland, a period during which the prosecution of alleged practitioners of sorcery was a frequent feature of the Scottish judicial landscape.
While the specific details of the allegations against Marget remain encapsulated within the brief entry of the case file, the documentation confirms her encounter with the mechanisms of the Scottish state and church. As an inhabitant of Bute, Marget’s experience reflects the broader patterns of witch-hunting that intensified in the region during the late 1640s. Her case stands as a surviving testament to the legal processes of the era, marking her involvement in the complex web of local suspicions and judicial responses that characterized the trials of the early modern period.