Burn the witches

Today Paisley hosted a re-enactment of the famous witch trials of 1697, where seven townsfolk were convicted of being witches and put to death.

They were buried under one of the town's main junctions and a horseshoe placed on top to keep their spirits in check. In the 1960s the horseshoe was dislodged during roadworks, and superstitious folks might have believed that this was the cause of Paisley's subsequent economic and social decline.

This weekend the horseshoe was replaced with a shiny new version, and a re-enactment of the trials was held. The re-enactment wasn't great for photos, but the story is well known in the local area and it was good to see people working to educate others about the town's history. I'm not superstitious myself, but it was nice to see the horseshoe put back as intended.