In the spring of 1662, the legal mechanisms of the Scottish witch trials reached the parish of Auldearn in Nairn, resulting in the formal accusation of Keathren Sowter. On 14 April of that year, Keathren was entered into the official record under the case identifier C/EGD/476. At a time when the administrative apparatus of the kirk sessions and secular courts was intensely focused on the identification of perceived supernatural threats, Keathren was identified as a subject of judicial inquiry, marking the beginning of a process that would strip her of her anonymity and subject her to the scrutiny of the Nairn authorities.
Following her initial identification, the matter proceeded to the formal trial phase, documented under T/LA/1864. This progression from an initial case registration to a trial indicates that the evidence brought against Keathren was deemed sufficient by the local judiciary to move beyond preliminary investigation. Throughout these proceedings, she remained caught within the rigid socio-legal framework of mid-seventeenth-century Scotland, where the records prioritize the classification of her personhood and the progression of the legal charge over the personal narrative of her life in Auldearn.