A Poignant Art Nouveau Memorial to Scotland's Witch Trial Victims
Affixed to a dark stone wall at the top of the Royal Mile, just steps from the massive esplanade of Edinburgh Castle, sits the Witches' Well. Despite its proximity to Scotland’s most visited landmark, many tourists rush past without noticing this small, deeply poignant Art Nouveau bronze drinking fountain.
Commissioned in 1894 by the sociologist and reformer Sir Patrick Geddes and designed by Scottish artist John Duncan, the fountain commemorates the hundreds of women who were tortured, strangled, and burned at the stake on Castlehill between the late 15th and early 18th centuries under the Scottish Witchcraft Act.
The bronze plaque features a relief of two contrasting heads: the wicked face of superstition looking backward into darkness, and the serene face of wisdom looking forward into light. Foxglove leaves—a traditional healing herb that was often cited by witch-hunters as evidence of demonic knowledge—delicately frame the fountain basin, standing as a quiet monument of historical remembrance.
"Look closely at the bronze serpent encircling the two faces—it represents both the healing staff of Asclepius and the folklore serpent of deceit, symbolizing how traditional herbal healing was tragically misconstrued as black sorcery."
More women were accused and burned for witchcraft on Castlehill than anywhere else in Scotland. Over 300 individuals were condemned here under King James VI’s brutal anti-witchcraft statutes.
