In the year 1590, a young girl named Meg Dow from Gilmerton, Edinburgh, became a figure of haunting tragedy during the tumultuous times of the Scottish witch trials. As the trial records reveal, Meg was only nine years old when she stood accused of witchcraft, an indictment that culminated in one of the more horrifying episodes of the period. Though the records list her age unequivocally as nine, some ambiguity arises from the notation of "lx" (which typically signifies the Roman numeral for sixty), suggesting a possible clerical error or misrecording that adds a layer of confusion to the historical account.
On April 14th and 20th of 1590, Meg was subjected to questioning, a precursor to the judicial ordeals that would decide her fate. This questioning likely involved intense scrutiny and coercive interrogations, practices not uncommon in witch trials at the time. The records do not specify the nature of the accusations against her or the evidence presented, but the final trial took place swiftly on April 28th, 1590, at Edinburgh. The verdict was devastating: guilty. Consequently, Meg was sentenced to execution by strangulation followed by burning at the familiar site of Castle Hill—a sentence severe in its irrevocability and finality.
The mention of Meg in other cases, most notably in Janet Pook’s trial, implies that her accusation may have been part of a wider web of denunciations and claims, a common feature in witch hunts where accused individuals often named others under duress or through coercion. Meg’s tragic end, set against the backdrop of Edinburgh’s gallows, serves as a somber reminder of the young lives caught in the crossfire of superstition and fear that pervaded Scotland during this fraught period.