Kate McNiven

Lore & Background

According to local legend, Kate McNiven was a reputed witch who lived in a cave and had served as nursemaid to the Laird of Inchbrakie when he was young. She was a healer and, in one version, was rumored to sometimes take the form of a bee. Found guilty of witchcraft, she was sentenced to die by strangling and burning on the Knock of Crieff, near her cave. The Laird attempted to stop the execution but failed. As she died, Kate cursed the local town of Monzie and its officials, who were involved in her murder, so that they would never grow or prosper. However, she spat out a small blue stone – in some versions, this was pulled from a necklace she was wearing – and gave it to the Laird of Inchbrakie. She promised him that as long as he and his descendants kept it on their land, they would always have heirs to hold the property. Graeme describes the stone as a 'moonstone sapphire' and claims that generations later it was removed from the house by mistake, and as a result the property was gradually sold away.

Reader's Guide

Kate McNiven's significance lies in her contested place in Scottish witchcraft history and folklore. The first known mention in print is from 1818, using the name Catharine Niven, with no date and no curse on Monzie. Her death is often set in 1715, twenty years before the Witchcraft Act 1735 abolished such executions, making her the last witch burnt in Perthshire, but this date was probably an invention by the Rev. George Blair for his 1845 poetic adaptation. A Calendar of Cases of Witchcraft in Scotland 1510–1727 dates her death around 1615, while Alexander Porteous placed it in 1563. The trial of John Brughe in 1643 mentions a witch named Nikneveing who had been burnt eighty years earlier, also pointing to the 1560s. A case from May 1569 in St. Andrews involved a sorceress named Nic Neville or Nicniven, who was a hundred years old and defended herself cleverly, accusing apothecaries of jealousy. Alexander Montgomerie's satirical Flyting (c. 1585) describes a witch named Nicneven, and scholars debate whether this was inspired by a real woman burnt around the 1560s. Multiple locations around Monzie are named for McNiven, such as 'Kate McNiven's Yett,' 'Kate McNiven's Craig,' and 'Kate McNiven's Well.'

Did You Know?

• Louisa G. Graeme, a descendant of the Inchbrakie family, noted in 1903 that no authentic record of McNiven's death existed.
• Alexander Montgomerie's satirical Flyting (c. 1585) describes a witch named Nicneven, possibly inspired by a real woman burnt for witchcraft around the 1560s.