Witch Wood
1st edition dust jacket
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| Author | John Buchan |
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| Country | Scotland |
| Language | English, Lowland Scots |
| Genre | Historical novel |
| Publisher | Hodder and Stoughton |
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Publication date
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1927 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
Witch Wood is a 1927 novel by the Scots author John Buchan, set in the Scottish Borders during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A significant portion of the dialogue is in Lowland Scots.
In a prologue to the novel, the narrator recalls legends of the time, 300 years ago, when the minister of the Kirk of Woodilee in the Scottish lowlands was spirited away by the fairies or – as some said – by the devil.
The story opens in 1644 with the coming of David Sempill, newly-ordained minister of the Church of Scotland, to Woodilee, a parish passionate in its support of the Covenant. Sempill is less committed to strict doctrinal practices than many of the Covenanters, and he finds himself attracted to the creed of Mark Riddel, a fugitive and follower of Lord Montrose, supporter of the King and enemy of the Kirk. Soon afterwards, when Riddel is injured, the minister secretes him within the manse.
One night in the feared Black Wood of Melanudrigill the minister stumbles across a diabolic rite in which figures wearing animal headpieces dance around a pagan altar. He later attempts to identify the ringleader and although unsuccessful manages to splash his clothes with pungent aniseed oil. The next day the wife of a prominent elder of the Kirk, Ephraim Caird, is discovered burning clothes on a fire which smells strongly of aniseed.
The plague comes to Woodilee. Sempill labours to prevent its spread helped by a newcomer named Mark Kerr who, unknown to the locals, is in fact the fugitive Mark Riddel. Nursing care is surreptitiously provided by a shadowy figure that the locals take to be a fairy but who is in fact Katrine Yester, niece of the local laird, to whom Sempill is secretly engaged. Katrine contracts the plague and dies. A local woman is accused by a pricker of being a witch and in spite of the best efforts of Sempill and Kerr is tortured and killed.
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