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One of the most celebrated Scottish witch-cat trials took place at Caithness when Margaret Nin-Gilbert was…

Date of account: Published 1915
Source: Human Animals
Reference: Human Animals · selected passage 101
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

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Source passage

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One of the most celebrated Scottish witch-cat trials took place at Caithness when Margaret Nin-Gilbert was interrogated on February 8, 1719, by William Innes, minister of Thurso, and confessed that she was travelling one evening when she was met by the devil in the likeness of a man who "engaged her to take on with him," which she agreed to do. From that time she became familiar with him, and sometimes he appeared to her in the likeness of a huge black horse, sometimes riding a horse, sometimes like a black cloud, and again in the shape of a black hen. She apparently obtained the powers of a witch with the help of this apparition, and the use she made of them appears in the following story told by one William Montgomery, a mason, whose house was invaded by cats in such numbers that his wife and maidservant could not endure to remain in the place.

Historical context

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Modern context

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