Ashes and Stones: A Scottish Journey in Search of Witches and Witness

Our summary description

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Along Scotland’s ragged coasts and through remote villages, Ashes & Stones follows a search for the women accused of witchcraft in the seventeenth century. The journey moves from fairy hills to hedge mazes, reading the land for what it still remembers, and for what has been worn away.

Allyson Shaw traces the marks these stories have left on the landscape, holding close to the fact that they were lives, not folklore. By linking the lives of contemporary women to the horrors of the past, she builds a record of resilience and remembrance, attentive to the ways fear and power can shape what a community chooses to believe.

As she untangles the myth of witchcraft, the book sets out to give voice to those erased by it, returning them to the places where their traces remain.