In the year 1662, during the witch trials that proliferated across Scotland, a woman named Cormule Nean Ean Duy Vic Conchie Vic Goune found herself at the heart of a grave accusation in the parish of Kiltarlity & Convinth, known then as Conveth in some records. Residing in the small settlement of Buntoit within this Highland region of Inverness, Cormule was a married woman whose trial commenced amidst the widespread witchcraft hysteria of the time. Historical records indicate that she appeared before the authorities on the 26th of June, 1662. The nature of the charges she faced, like those against many others of the era, remain unspecified in surviving documents, highlighting a gap in the details regarding her alleged misdeeds or the evidence presented against her.
The case of Cormule is particularly noted for the confession that was recorded in the same month of June 1662, which serves as one of the few pieces of documentation that survives about her trial. The absence of detailed trial notes leaves much to the imagination regarding the pressures she faced and the circumstances under which her confession was obtained. It was not uncommon during this period for confessions to be extracted under duress or through the influence of the intense cultural and religious fears surrounding witchcraft. Unfortunately, the lack of additional records limits our understanding of Cormule's fate following her confession, leaving her story as a stark reminder of the many women whose lives were irrevocably altered by the witch trials in 17th-century Scotland.