27/10/2026
The 173 black threads in this tartan stand for the 173 years Scotland's Witchcraft Act was in force โ and are meant to honor the 2,500 people the country killed.
In February 2025, the Witches of Scotland tartan was added to the official Scottish Register of Tartans.
It was created by campaigners Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi, who founded the Witches of Scotland campaign in 2020, working with designer and weaver Clare Campbell of the Prickly Thistle mill in the Highlands.
The pattern is a code.
Black and gray stand for the dark times and the ashes of those burned. Red and pink represent the legal tape that bound court papers. The big black squares have 173 threads, one for each year the Witchcraft Act was in force, and thinner lines use 15 or 17 threads, the digits of 1563 and 1736 added up.
A three-thread check marks the campaign's three goals: a pardon, an apology and a memorial.
Under the Act, an estimated 4,000 people were accused and around 2,500 were executed, most of them women. Many were tortured or kept awake for days, then strangled and burned.
In 2022, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon formally apologized, but a legal pardon and a national memorial are still missing. Unlike clan tartans, this one belongs to no family, so anyone can wear it, turning kilts and scarves into what its makers call a "living memorial."
source: Kuta, S. See the new tartan pattern created to honor women accused of witchcraft in Scotland between 1563 and 1736. Smithsonian Magazine.
