The Peebles witches tell their story in Tweed Theatre production

Local woman and former English and Drama teacher at Kelso High School and Galashiels Academy, Kathleen Mansfield, has written the tragic history into a play set in The Cross Keys Hotel in the Northgate of Peebles.

Kathleen said: “Evidence surrounding the witch trials is scant as the parish has a few decades of blank records, but Edinburgh University supplied information and I used Mary Craig’s Borders Witch Hunt as a starting point. What was really useful was book-keeping at the time. It proved the executions took place.

“Margaret Johnestoun’s records, who Craig says was one of the witches killed on Christmas Eve, has a question mark over whether she was actually executed. The records are almost bare. Just two of the so-called witches had an occupation listed.

“So, I gathered information from later records of Peebles. The Book of the Cross Kirk Peebles 1560-1690 Dr Gunn was particularly useful. Pat Goodacre took me up Tor Hill so I could see the town below and imagine the supposed witches dancing up there. The wind took my scarf and it was nowhere to be seen. Is the Devil still playing tricks up on that hill by Kailzie Gardens?”

The play, Don’t Trust Anyone, will be produced by Tweed Theatre at The Eastgate Theatre on October 30 and 31, and November 1.

It then travels to Biggar on November 5, the historic celebration of the failed gunpowder plot of 1605 and a very apt date. Finally, the cast will perform at MacArts in Galashiels on November 20.

For further information contact Tweed Theatre via their Facebook page.