In November 1705, the legal machinery of the Scottish witch trials turned its attention toward Mary McNarin, a single woman residing in the parish of Penninghame, Kirkcudbright. As recorded in case file C/EGD/2450, Mary was formally identified as the subject of judicial proceedings regarding witchcraft during this period of heightened religious and social scrutiny. At a time when the Kirk and the local magistrates exercised significant authority over the conduct and spiritual health of their parishioners, the involvement of a single woman in such a case often drew upon local tensions and the established legal frameworks governing sorcery under the Witchcraft Act of 1563.
Though archival records for this specific case remain sparse, Mary appears within the broader context of the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth-century persecutions that characterized this era of Scottish history. The documentation concerning her remains tied to the administrative processes of the time, noting her status and residence in the Lowlands. While researchers such as Christina Larner have cataloged the legal trends of the period, the extant details regarding Mary underscore the precarious position of vulnerable individuals within the social hierarchy of Penninghame as they navigated the formal accusations brought against them.