15 Facts About Lilias Adie

Lilias Adie was accused of practising witchcraft and fornicating with the devil but died in prison before sentence could be passed.

In 1704, Adie was held in prison for the crime of practising witchcraft.

Lilias Adie's story is preserved in the 1704 Kirk session minutes.

Lilias Adie was taken to the local minister, Rev Allan Logan to answer to the crime of witchcraft.

Lilias Adie's 'confession' explained how the devil had been wearing a hat when he first visited her in a cornfield at sunset the first time they met.

Lilias Adie elaborated that she had gone to other meetings and cavorted with the devil with other witches.

In 2014, interest in Lilias Adie's story encouraged the historian and BBC broadcaster Dr Louise Yeoman and Douglas Speirs, an archaeologist at Fife Council, to look for her burial site.

Lilias Adie had been buried on the beach at Torryburn Bay, in a "humble" wooden box, under this sandstone slab between the low and high tide marks.

Lilias Adie's remains were dug up by antique-collecting grave robbers in 1852.

Lilias Adie's thighbones were found to be of comparable length with those of a man who was 6 feet tall.

Lilias Adie still had most of her teeth, which were "white and fresh".

In 1904, two hundred years after her death, photographs were taken of Lilias Adie's remains which are now held at the National Library of Scotland.

Lilias Adie said that she couldn't give the names of other women at the witches' gatherings as they were masked like gentlewomen.

Fife Council has launched a campaign to find out what happened to Lilias Adie's remains and give them a proper burial.

On 31 August 2019,315 years after Lilias Adie died in custody, a memorial service was held in Torryburn and a wreath laid at the site of her grave to raise awareness of the persecution these women and men endured in Fife during the witchcraft panics.