Isobel Gowdie was a well-known witch in Scotland during the 17th century. She confessed to witchcraft while being tortured, and she is now widely regarded as one of history’s most important witches. The confessions were written down by Isobel’s interrogator, Father John Kelly, and are thought to be Scotland’s first recorded account of a witch trial. Isobel was well-known for her ability to cast spells and prophesy, as well as tell fortunes by looking into people’s teacups or reading their palms. Because of her long, white hair, she is sometimes referred to as ‘Isobel Long-beard.‘

Over the course of six weeks, Gowdie confessed to witchcraft four times. Her first confession, dated 13 April 1662 at Auldearn, described an encounter with the Devil after she arranged to meet him at night in the kirk at Auldearn. She said she renounced her baptism and the Devil put his mark on her shoulder and sucked blood from it, naming several others who attended, including Janet Breadhead and Margret Brodie. She mentioned having sexual relations with the Devil, whom she described as a very cold “meikle, blak, roch man.” He had forked and cloven feet, which were occasionally covered by shoes or boots. She explained that brooms were placed beside her husband’s bed to keep him from noticing she was absent. The coven ate and drank the best food in houses they arrived at by flying through the air on magical horses and entering through the windows. They were entertained at Downie Hill by the Queen of the Fairies, also known as the Queen of Elphame. She claimed to have transformed into a jackdaw, and that other members of the coven had transformed into cats and hares.

Gowdie’s second confession was transcribed a little more than two weeks later, on 3 May 1662. She filled in the blanks about the coven by naming the members’ nicknames and as many of the spirits who served them as she could remember; her own servant spirit, dressed in black, was known as the Read Reiver. The ability to transform into animals was claimed, with individual chants used to transform into a cat, horse, or various other animals supplied. Over the course of her confessions, she gave a total of twenty-seven benevolent or malevolent chants, more than in any other British witchcraft case.

Gowdie was brought before her interrogators for the third time on May 15, 1662. The transcript, like her first and second confessions, and like many other Scottish witchcraft testimonies, begins by detailing her pact with the Devil after she met him and agreed to meet him at Auldearn Kirk. Her story continued to describe how, while in that form, she was pursued by a pack of dogs; she escaped by running from house to house until she had the opportunity to utter the chant to transform herself back into a human. She went on to say that when a witch assumed the form of a hare, the dogs could bite her; while the dogs couldn’t kill the shapeshifter, the bite marks and scars would remain visible once the human form was restored.

According to historian Robert Pitcairn, who first reproduced Gowdie’s testimonies in 1833, the fourth and final confession, dated 27 May 1662, is basically to confirm the three previous testimonies while also attempting to elicit more information about the members of the coven in order to bring charges against them. As a result of Breadhead and Gowdie’s statements, 41 people were arrested.

Isobel is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of witchcraft. According to academic Julian Goodare, Isobel is “one of the most famous of all Scottish witches,” with “extraordinary confessions” that include “some of the most remarkable [visionary activities] on record.” This modern-day description is similar to Pitcairn’s in 1833 and George F. Black’s in 1937, when they wrote in the Calendar of Witchcraft in Scotland, “This is the most remarkable witchcraft case on record… referred to, in more or less detail, in every work relating to witchcraft in Scotland.”