Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

New play to tell the story of Perthshire’s mysterious Maggie Wall witch monument

The Maggie Wall witch monument in Perthshire and actress Blythe Jandoo.
The Maggie Wall witch monument in Perthshire and actress Blythe Jandoo.

A new play is to tell the story of the mysterious Maggie Wall witch monument in Perthshire.

The monument, near Dunning, is a collection of stones about 20ft high, bearing the words: “Maggie Wall burnt here 1657 as a witch.”

But through the years, no public records have ever been found to suggest Maggie Wall ever existed.

Maggie Wall near Dunning in Perthshire.

Historians now believe that the grave acts as a memorial in honour of all the women accused and executed for witchcraft.

The new play, which will premiere at Pitlochry Festival Theatre‘s new Studio, explores the vulnerability of women and injustices suffered by them in a “patriarchal and closed community”.

Written by Martin McCormick, the play will star Blythe Jandoo – who is currently appearing in the Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s production of Sunshine on Leith.

Blythe stars in the show.

Martin said: “Maggie Wall is not far from where I live and is genuinely an eerie place to visit.

“The more I discovered about the site, the grislier the history of the monument’s significance became.

“I’m always drawn to stories that uncover dark secrets, particularly about the place you live, and the more I researched the Maggie Wall the more unsettling the mythology around the monument was – with specific regard to how it was connected, and perhaps strangely responsible, to other acts of violence on women.

Play aims to find a ‘voice for Maggie’

“I have tried to find the voice for Maggie in this piece and to allow her to have her say.

“This felt powerful and important given the enormous parallels her story has with the continuing acts of violence on women by an abusive, patriarchal establishment in our society.”

The show runs from September 9 to 29.

Conversation