In the autumn of 1629, the legal authorities of Ayr turned their focus toward Margaret Wallace, a resident of the small settlement of Mylneholme. The mechanisms of the Scottish judicial system were set in motion against her under the provisions of the Witchcraft Act of 1563, which criminalized the practice of sorcery and the consultation with witches. Her case, documented in the archives as C/EGD/675, proceeded with a swiftness characteristic of the period, moving from the accusations brought against her to a formal judicial determination within the local jurisdiction.
The resolution of Margaret’s trial (T/LA/682) concluded on the 13th of October, 1629. On that same day, the sentence passed upon her was carried out. In accordance with the judicial practices of the time for those convicted of capital witchcraft charges, Margaret was executed by fire. Her case remains a distinct entry in the records of the early seventeenth-century witch trials in Scotland, marking the abrupt end of her life in Mylneholme on that mid-October day.