Among other magical abilities, witches in history have long been thought to consort with the dead. Be it with a Ouija Board at the height of the spiritualism movement or via the old, alleged maleficium, it’s easy to put witches and ghosts in a similar, mystical camp. However, every now and then, supposed witches do a tad bit more than speak to spirits; they sometimes become spirits themselves, or so some people claim.

The following is a list of the ten most famous witches to become ghosts or cryptids, not only being figures of folklore like the Baba Yaga or Jenny Greenteeth but who also, as some claim, have been sighted to this day.

Related: 10 Unusual Male Witch Trials From Europe

10 Mother Shipton and the Petrifying Well

The tale of Ursula Sontheil, also known as Mother Shipton, begins in 1488 in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England. Born to a fifteen-year-old mother, Agatha Sontheil, out of wedlock, Ursula was raised by her mother alone. The two lived in a cave for two years before Agatha was taken to a nunnery, leaving Ursula to be raised by the local Abbot of Beverly.

Ursula, however, was born to look exactly like one would imagine a stereotypical witch to look: warts, nose, and all. So she made very few friends and would end up spending most of her time in the woods and around the cave, studying plants and old cunning women’s traditions. She would develop a reputation as a successful folk healer prophetess and live to be 73.

Mother Shipton’s cave has also garnered a haunting reputation. A nearby well, known as the Petrifying Well, has an odd tendency to turn most objects left there over three or so months into stone. Despite science tackling that mystery, chalking it up to a high mineral content, many claim to see a shadowy, witch-like figure prowling around the mouth of the cave, often disappearing as soon as it appears.^[1]

9 Barbara Zdunk

Barbara Zdunk holds the intriguing title of “The Last Witch to Be Burned at the Stake in Europe.” However, this would not be her only alleged crime. The city of Reszel in Poland was under attack by a serial arsonist at the beginning of the 19th century, and in 1806, the entire town was burned to the ground. Barbara Zdunk, a maid at the time, was charged with the crime, though most suspect that she was a victim of a slander campaign. Though she was also pinned with practicing magic, witchcraft was not a crime in what was then Prussia, but it was used as evidence nonetheless. Zdunk was executed on August 21 at Szubienica Hill, outside of Reszel.

As such, it is within the Reszel Castle that many claim to see the spirit of Barbara Zdunk. It is in this castle’s dungeons that the alleged witch was first imprisoned and tortured over the course of four years. She was even sexually assaulted and gave birth twice during her imprisonment, though no one knows what became of her children. Some claim to see her wandering spirit haunt the castle’s dungeons and often report blood-curdling screams when no one (alive) is there to make them. Ghost Hunters International even visited Reszel Castle and was subject to a smattering of poltergeist moments.^[2]

8 Marie Laveau

Though not necessarily a witch, Marie Laveau is often referred to as “The Voodoo Queen of New Orleans” for her reputation as a wise priestess in the Voodoo religion and as a pillar of the New Orleans black community. Voodoo stems from west African beliefs that developed prominence in the Caribbean and other areas, including New Orleans. Marie Laveau, born around the turn of the 19th century, had a deep ancestry involving many prominent Voodoo priestesses and learned much about the religion under the tutelage of a Dr. John (Bayou John) from Senegal.

Marie Laveau would live a long, influential life, passing away from old age on June 15, 1881. Laveau is buried at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 and still receives gifts and spiritual adornments to this day. The cemetery, however, is not the haunted location where Marie Laveau’s spirit is sometimes spotted. Instead, her home, on St. Anne Street, boasts that title, even though the building was torn down and rebuilt in 1903.

Many report seeing the spirit of the Voodoo Queen walking peacefully down St. Anne Street, wearing a white dress and her tingon headdress. She is also said to haunt rooms within the new building, which is used nowadays for a vacation rental. People also claim to hear mysterious chanting and drumming coming from a completely empty street.^[3]

7 The Soucouyant

The Soucouyant treads a thin line between “vampire” and “witch,” but this Caribbean spirit is described as an old hag often enough to qualify her for this list. The Soucouyant is a legend prominent in southern Caribbean nations, namely Trinidad and Tobago, and is actually a name for a witch-like entity, as opposed to a singular witch. According to legend, she is able to strip off her skin at night and transform into a giant fireball, which often visits people’s homes while they’re asleep to suck their blood, supposedly leaving blue-black marks.

The Soucouyant can be stopped, however. By sprinkling salt or pepper on her discarded skin, it would burn her to death when she returned. One can also place a bowl of rice on their front doorstep, forcing her to count each grain before she can enter.

Despite the Soucouyant appearing to be more of a legend than a cryptid, she has been allegedly sighted recently. However, it is considered quite taboo to talk about them, making reports a tad bit scarce. Nevertheless, people report seeing balls of fire flying like paranormal orbs of light, sometimes with a visible face inside.^[4]

6 Hauntings at Proctor’s Ledge

Perhaps the initial incident that took place is far more famous than any hauntings that have lingered into the modern era, but Salem definitely has its fair share of hauntings.

Though it’s hard to actually claim that any victims of the infamous Salem Witch Trials were bonafide, practicing witches, it is safe to say that many institutions have reports of ghosts. And a lot of the alleged spirits seem to be people from around 1692 when the trials started—if the descriptions are anything to go by.

In 1921, historian Sidney Perley discovered the location of “Gallows Hill,” where the executions took place, and found said location to be at the foot of Proctor’s Ledge, a hill in Salem. According to Massachusetts law, it was illegal to bury the executed “witch” in consecrated ground, so most of the victims of the Salem Witch Trials were “buried” near the execution site in a mass grave. Although, some family members may have removed their accused family member under the cover of darkness for burial elsewhere.

To this day, a mysterious Lady in White is often seen wandering Proctor’s Ledge and other Salem locations. However, no one has yet identified her as a specific victim of the famed trials. In addition, faint wailing and moaning are often reported at the location, as well as the ever-common cold spots and floating orbs that accompany ghostly locations.^[5]

5 Agnes Sampson

Agnes Sampson, also known as the Wyse Wyff of Keyth, was a prolific cunning woman from Scotland who tragically suffered her demise at the North Beswick Witch Trial in 1591. The historic Holyroodhouse Palace in Edinburgh was where Sampson was tried and executed, and according to legend, it still serves as her place of residence to this day.

In life, Agnes Sampson was a widow with two children, who made a living helping the people of Scotland with the folk remedies she had learned. Unfortunately, though, a maidservant named Geillis Duncan was convicted of witchcraft and started confessing about other witches she knew, similar to how the Salem Witch Trials panned out. Sampson was regrettably a victim of Duncan’s admission. As a result, Sampson was imprisoned and tortured for a few months before she was garroted and burned on January 28.

To this day, a phantom matching Agnes Sampson’s description has been seen wandering Holyroodhouse Palace, often apparating with her torture wounds fully visible. She is often witnessed either slowly wandering the halls or acting out the final scenes of her life.^[6]

4 Janet Douglas

Janet Douglas was another victim of the various witch trials that plagued Scotland, though Douglas would meet her fate more than fifty years before Agnes Sampson, being burned at the stake on July 17, 1537. Also known as Lady Glamis, Douglas is said to be spotted at Glamis Castle to this day, prowling its halls as an ethereal phantasm.

However, in contrast to Sampson, Douglas’s accusations came not from her reputation as a folk witch but from her relation to Sir James Douglas, a lieutenant to Robert the Bruce and an enemy of King James V of Scotland. Out of contempt for the whole Douglas family, Janet Douglas was convicted of treason, poisoning her husband, and witchcraft. It took no time at all for the Lady Glamis and her sixteen-year-old son to be imprisoned and tortured, and it is alleged that her son was forced to watch his mother burn to death.

Though she was executed at Edinburgh Castle, Douglas allegedly manifests at her original home of Glamis Castle, where she is also known as the Grey Lady. She is often spotted in garb sporting the color of her new namesake, and she is most commonly sighted at the castle’s chapel.^[7]

3 The Aswang

This next legend comes from the Philippines and also blurs the line between witch and vampire, much like the Soucouyant. Although it typically takes the form of a woman by day, the Aswang is a figure in Philippine folklore who has the ability to shapeshift into large dogs, cats, birds, and sometimes werewolves, all so that they can hunt humans at night. The only way to discern if someone is an Aswang is if their eyes reflect their beholders upside-down or if a special painting crafted by an albularyo, a Filipino folk healer, starts to boil whenever the Aswang draws near.

In order to consume its victims, an Aswang is said to perch on the roof of people’s homes and move its long, prehensile tongue toward small openings in a victim’s home to probe the scene before breaking in, eating them, and replacing the corpse with a mannequin made of wood and plants. To this day, many in the Philippines report seeing an odd cryptid preying on people’s roofs.^[8]

2 La Lechuza

This next entry on the list is less canine and a tad bit more avian. La Lechuza’s folkloric roots can be traced back to Mexico, and her name can even be directly translated as “the owl,” for she is often spotted as a giant owl with a woman’s face.

La Lechuza’s origins stem from a nameless woman being convicted of practicing black magic by those in her village, who immediately murdered her. This supposed bruja, or variation on the witch in Mexico, came back as the aforementioned terrifying, seven-foot-tall bird lady, allegedly lingering to this day, appearing as an older hag by day and transforming into her bird form at night.

People report witnessing La Lechuza perching in high trees at night, either emulating a baby’s cry to attract potential victims or simply screeching like an owl should anyone approach. She’s also known to swoop after cars, attempting to run them off the road.^[9]

1 The Bell Witch

The Bell Witch is by far the most famous and enduring spirit attached to witchcraft, and according to legend, is one of the very few ghosts who—according to the myth—ever managed to kill someone. Her tale begins in rural Tennessee, from 1817 to 1821. Her haunting started when a man named John Bell shot at a mysterious creature in his cornfield, which appeared to have the head of a rabbit on the body of a dog.

As time went on, the whole Bell family became host to poltergeist activity, such as odd knocking and sheets being pulled off in the middle of the night. Betsy Bell was a particular victim to the Witch and often woke up being slapped and beaten by an invisible entity. Former U.S. President Andrew Jackson even visited the family, and he and his entourage were beaten and cursed at by the same invisible force.

The haunting of the Bell Witch, however, culminated in John Bell turning significantly ill, and the family discovered an odd vial with a mysterious liquid hidden in the home. When they tested the liquid on the family cat, it died immediately, and to this day, it is suspected that it was the Bell Witch who poisoned John.^[10]

As the phrase ‘witch hunt’ still shows, the Witch Craze of the early modern period is now an infamous byword for superstition, hysteria and irrational cruelty. Yet witch beliefs and persecutions remain surprisingly misunderstood. When people talk about ‘witch burning Puritans’ for example, they wrongly assume that Puritans killed more witches than did High Anglicans or Catholics, whilst witches were almost never burned in England or America. The same goes for ‘medieval superstition’. The Middle Ages had far fewer witch accusations or deaths than the time of Shakespeare or Charles II, or indeed the Ancient Romans. Finally, although the British Witchcraft Act of 1736 outlawed official witch persecution, popular beliefs and popular violence ran on – and on, and on… Well into the twentieth century alleged witches were still in danger of their lives in Britain, Europe and North America.

10 Women Convicted For Witchcraft For The Most Ridiculous Reasons

10 The Romans

 

Belief in witchcraft is probably as old as fear itself. Ronald Hutton finds degrees of it in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. What is perhaps more surprising is how powerful and deadly the fear of witchcraft was in Ancient Rome. For many, the Romans now seem to epitomize order, efficiency, rational pragmatism and the heights of culture. That seemingly paradoxical mixture is echoed again in early modern Europe, where the madness of witch hunts co-existed alongside the greatest achievements in art, music and literature, and the early Scientific Revolution sparked by Robert Boyle, Thomas Willis and Newton.

Throughout history, and in much of the developing world today, the witch was prime scapegoat for bad weather, crop failure, and above all, disease. Hutton cites a Roman epidemic of 331BC during which over 170 female citizens, two of them noblewomen, were put to death for magic. Between 184-180 BC epidemics across Italy claimed the lives of two thousand supposed black magicians in one wave, and three thousand in the next.^[1]

9 Clairvoyance

 

Lara Apps and Andrew Gow estimate that, between around 1450 and 1750, roughly 110,000 people were tried as witches, and about 60,000 of these executed. The vast majority of these victims lost their lives owing to superstition and misogyny. But there is evidence that a small handful of so-called witches had genuine psychic powers.

An especially significant case of this occurred in Scotland in 1591. During a spate of accusations in North Berwick from 1590-92, a woman called Agnes Sampson was tortured and interrogated, and finally brought before King James VI. James was initially skeptical of Sampson’s occult claims, until she related to him the exact words of a conversation between himself and his wife Anne, on the first night of their wedding in Norway. On hearing this, James reportedly stated that ‘all the devils in hell could not have discovered the same’ and now began to take Sampson more seriously.

Modern examples of clairvoyance are well known among mediums. Remote Viewing and clairvoyance have been used by the CIA and by the police when seeking missing persons. Sampson was garroted and burned in Edinburgh on 28 January 1591. But this was just the beginning of a British witch craze which James later took south to England, when he became James I in 1603.^[2]

8 The Witch of Edmonton

 

On 14 April 1621, Elizabeth Sawyer of Edmonton was charged with various crimes performed by supposed witchcraft. On 19 April she was hanged as a witch at Tyburn. One especially damning piece of evidence against Sawyer was the death of a neighbor, Agnes Ratcliffe, after an argument between the two women. Ratcliffe’s husband testified to an alleged curse on his wife, who had then gone to bed, foaming at the mouth in terror, and dying within four days. Numerous other accounts of Voodoo Death indicate that Ratcliffe actually died of fear.

The case is now famous because of the play based on it, rushed opportunistically onto the stage by Thomas Dekker, William Rowley and John Ford that same December. Whilst this adaptation may have been partly inspired by the success of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, The Witch of Edmonton was very different. Many audiences were probably drawn by wonder and terror, and the topical buzz of the story. But shrewder viewers may have realised that the real villains here were those who ostracized and demonized a lonely old woman – to the point where her only two friends were the Devil and his dog. Our distance from the world of Jacobean witch beliefs is now sharply captured by modern reactions to the black devil dog, played then by an actor in a dog suit. Some scenes between Sawyer and this uncanny mutt are indeed poignant. But 21st century viewers may well feel ambivalent about the one in which she promises the animal the witch’s teat presently, with the dog responding: ‘Bow wow! I’ll have it now!’^[3]

7 Witch Cannibals

 

Like some kind of imaginative black hole, witches sucked in just about every conceivable taboo and gave it new life. Time and again, witches were accused of cannibalism, especially the eating of babies or children. In some cases they were said to rob graves, and powder bones for their magic; but they were often seen as lusting for flesh as food. Lyndal Roper records the 1590 confession of one Barbara Lierheimer of Nordlingen, who had supposedly eaten ‘”a roasted child’s little foot”‘. The fact that Lierheimer died as a result of torture would give most of us some prejudice against her accusers. Yet, between 1590 and 1598, it was believed that Lierheimer and a number of other ‘respectable’ citizens were secretly eating children.

On 30 April 1611 a male witch, Louis Gaufridi, was burned in Aix-en-Provence. Amongst various strange details of this case (not least that Gaufridi himself was a priest) was Gaufridi’s habit of never touching his food. Asked about this at table one day, the priest answered—with perhaps impolitic candour—that ‘he little regardeth your pottage and eggs, he feeds upon good flesh, the bodies of infants, which are invisibly sent unto him from the synagogue’. From the same text we presently hear of ‘the young sucking infants’ which Gaufridi and his coven ‘have eaten, and others which they have strangled, and digged up from graves to make pies withal’.^[4]

6 Sucking out Your Life

 

If there is one single belief about witches which broadly covers all their supposed crimes, it is this: witches attacked life. They were often the scapegoats for miscarriages, infertility, and cot deaths. They were also scapegoated for severe weather which threatened the life and fertility of crops; and no less frequently for any illness of livestock.

These beliefs distilled themselves into a recurrent fantasy: that witches somehow sucked the life from food, crops, animals – and people. At the time of Shakespeare, the soul was a real biological force, and fat had a status as an essence of life which rivalled blood. Whilst we do hear of witches drinking blood, the accusations made in Samlesbury, Lancashire, in summer 1612, are probably more typical of imagined witch assaults. Two sisters, Ellen and Jennet Bierley, were alleged to have killed an infant by occult means, later removing it from its grave to roast, boil and eat parts of it, after which they ‘did seethe the bones of the said child in a pot, and with the fat that came out of the said bones, they said they would anoint themselves, that thereby they might sometimes change themselves into other shapes’. To achieve the murder Jennet Bierley had supposedly ‘thrust a nail into the navel of the said child: and afterwards did take a pen and put it in at the said place, and did suck there a good space, and afterwards laid the child in bed again’. After this ‘the said child did thenceforth languish, and not long after died’. Many early-modern observers would have believed that Jennet was sucking out the child’s soul.

Near Capitalo in Mexico in 1888, a man named Medina was on trial for the murder of a reputed witch. She had allegedly claimed ‘protection money’ from many parents, on the threat that she could suck out children’s breath and kill them, evidently from a distance.^[5]

10 Modern Witch Hunts You Won’t Believe Happened Recently

5 Male Witches

 

About 80% of those accused and killed for witchcraft were women. But for some reason, Normandy boasted an unusually high number of male witch cases from 1564-1660. As William Monter has shown, of 380 witchcraft defendants in this region, around three-quarters were male; whilst after 1630, ‘men virtually monopolized Norman witchcraft cases’.

Back in Britain, the notorious Witch Country of Essex featured two extraordinary ‘male witches’ with very different characters and fates, across the last decades of Victoria and the reign of Edward VII. In 1864, Emma Smith and Samuel Stammers of Sible Hedingham were sentenced to six months’ hard labour for beating and ducking in the river an elderly deaf-mute Frenchman, known locally as ‘Dummy’. After going to bed in wet clothes, Dummy contracted bronchitis, and presently died. The assailants evidently believed that Dummy, known as a fortune teller, had bewitched them. Sadly, his being French and a deaf-mute would also have fed into this paranoia.

Meanwhile, in Canewdon in Essex, a man named George Pickingale (or Pickingill) died in 1909, aged 93, having enjoyed a long and terrifying life as a reputed male witch. Pickingale could supposedly stop farm machinery merely by looking at it, so that farmers bribed him to keep away. Many villagers lived in terror of his evil familiars, in the form of white mice. In his later years, he coerced villagers into fetching his water for him, on the basis of his formidable occult powers. Pickingale was also a healer of sorts, and may indeed have been clairvoyant.^[6]

4 Cutting a Witch

 

Spontaneous vigilante assaults on supposed witches, sometimes fatal, may have been motivated by terror, hysteria or personal feuding in many cases. But the widespread and enduring habit of ‘cutting a witch’ was based on the magical idea that this particular assault would cancel the witch’s power.

In Scotland this tactic was known as ‘cutting a witch above the breath’, ie, on the forehead. Lizanne Henderson tells of the Reverend Peter Rae of Kirkbride, a former law student of Glasgow University, doing this in 1706 to a woman believed to have bewitched him into sickness. One night in 1826 a Mr Monilaws, the minister of Kirkpatrick Fleming in Dumfries, was called out urgently to a riverside cottage. After a miller’s pigs had drowned in the river, he had decided on his uncanny female neighbour as the culprit, and so ‘had slit the skin of her forehead across, and let it hang down over her eyes. Mr Monilaws and his son sewed it up for her.’ In Market Rasen, Lincolnshire in 1842 a brickmaker named Radley became obsessed with a supposed witch, whom he believed to be the cause of his long-term health problems. Meeting her in the street one day, he cut her arm so that it bled profusely. The lady in question was Radley’s mother.^[7]

3 Child-Witches

 

What could possibly be cuter than small children dressed up as witches on Halloween? In fact, this modern custom would bewilder and horrify many parents from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Usually, children were especially likely to be the victims of witch-craft. But occasionally, they were identified as witches themselves.

Over 40 children were executed as witches in Wurzburg in the 1620s. In 1669, a whirlwind of terror exploded through the Swedish village of Mohra, where the minister suffered Sleep Paralysis Nightmares, and lost the power of speech for several weeks. Related interrogations revealed up to 300 children who were claimed to have been attending Witches’ Sabbaths. That August, fourteen women and one man were beheaded and then burned. Fifteen children were executed, and 148 whipped. In German Augsburg in 1723, children were again alleged to be attending Witches’ Sabbaths, and putting teeth and diabolic powder in their parents’ beds. Lyndal Roper records that around 20 children aged six to sixteen were held in prison cells for a year. One child was jailed on the request of his father, and one was not released until 1729.^[8]

2 The Witch Dynasty of Dettingen

 

Many witch-hunters believed that such devilish magic was passed down, one way or another, from diabolic parents to their children. In Dettingen, southern Germany, the Gamperle family were known as career witches and serial killers on an epic scale. Husband and wife Paul and Anne formed a coven with their sons Simon and Jacob, along with tailor George Smaltes, and armourer, Ullrich Sehelltibaum. When a storm broke on 23 July 1600, a dog fled into a cave and disturbed the Satanic Six at their black rites.

Ensuing confessions before the Governor of Munich were memorable indeed. Paul claimed to have been trained in the family business by his grandmother, and to have murdered 100 children, two of his uncles, and sixteen neighbours. Anne tallied 100 children and nineteen old people, also having hexed into suicide an innkeeper’s wife, who ran into an oven, and her husband, who stuck his head in a swilling tub and drowned. The sons had jointly killed over a hundred, with Jacob overcoming and slaying six men who tried to mug him. Adding in the totals claimed by Smaltes and Sehelltibaum, we have 527 murders by the coven, a figure rivalling the reports of the Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory around the same time.

Outside Munich city hall on 29 July, a vast crowd saw Anne have her breasts cut off, the executioner then using them to strike her in the face. She was whipped with wire, stretched on a wheel until her arms broke, and set on a spiked metal chair to be roasted alive. The sons were roasted together on the same stake, and Paul Gamperle was impaled and roasted alive.^[9]

1 Witches and Poltergeists

 

A few years ago I had the very strange experience of studying poltergeists and finding, in conversation with various friends, that these angry or disruptive spirits had invaded the houses of my fellow academics. The more I discussed the topic, the more cases I heard. Poltergeists (I realised to my consternation) do actually exist. And further research showed that they were the cause of witch accusations in a small number of cases. Poltergeists seem to use the energy of a young person in a given household, and that person is often female. Given that bizarre events follow this person around, observers can then leap to accusations of witchcraft.

In Cork in Ireland in 1661, Florence Newton was charged with witchcraft after an argument with one Mary Longdon had caused Longdon to suffer fits. The stones which fell from nowhere around Longdon were classic poltergeist stuff. Missing records now leave us unsure of Newton’s sentence, but formal witch charges were extremely rare in Ireland. In Cornwall in 1821, a long running and violent stone-throwing poltergeist sparked witch panic in Carelew Street, where a mob of children at one stage pursued an old woman with the aim of stripping her and drawing blood from her. In 1896, explosive and repeated hammerings at a house in Edithweston, Rutland, caused the owners to consider demolishing the property, and prompted older villagers to pin the blame on a young servant girl, aged around 14, and supposedly ‘in league with the Devil’. Again, the girl was probably a focus, although not a deliberate instigator of the noises.

On the Italian island of Elba, young Scottish woman Carole Compton arrived to care for a family’s three year old child – only to find spontaneous fires breaking out around her, and objects falling from nowhere. During a spectacular trial, Compton was accused of casting the evil eye on the child, and the word ‘witch’ was repeatedly hurled at or associated with her. Once more, she was almost certainly an involuntary poltergeist agent. The year was 1983.^[10]

10 Ways European Witch Finders Tested Their Victims

About The Author: Richard Sugg is the author of thirteen books, including Fairies: A Dangerous History (Reaktion, 2018), The Real Vampires (Amberley, 2019), Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires: the History of Corpse Medicine from the Middle Ages to the Falun Gong (Routledge, 2015; 3rd edn KDP, 2020), Bloodlust (KDP, 2020), and The Smoke of the Soul (Palgrave, 2013; 2nd edn, KDP, 2020). His work has been featured on Channel 4, and in The Guardian, Der Spiegel, and the New Yorker. He posts videos on a wide range of weird and obscure topics regularly. @DrSugg.

Witches, or those accused of being witches, were a common enemy in the vast swathes of Europe between 1500 and 1700. The last-recorded woman accused of being a witch, Anna Goldï, was beheaded in 1782. Her supposed crime was infant murder, as it’s highly likely that her child died of natural means. She was a domestic servant and had been romantically involved with her employer—who later accused her of witchcraft to conveniently bury the incident.

Witchcraft was a blanket accusation made of anyone who stirred discomfort in a deeply religious, misguided society. Whether you worked with medicinal herbs, stayed unmarried, refused the advances of a powerful man, or your baby died—you had better be afraid. You might be next.

Both Protestant and Catholic countries put “witches” on trial with great fervor. Germany had the highest amount of executions, perhaps due to the popularity of the book Malleus Maleficarum by two German scholars. It proclaimed the need to inform readers how to spot, torture, and bring down witches—a terrifying read indeed.

Now, we’ll look at 10 places where you can revisit this chilling history across Europe, paying homage to the ill-fated people accused of witchcraft during a particularly dark period.

10 Castlehill in Edinburgh, Scotland

Agnes Sampson was a well-respected midwife and healer within her community in the late 1500s. King James VI of Scotland (later King James I of England), the ruler at that time, led a brutal crusade against women, labeling many as witches. His fear and obsession were sparked when his ship was ravaged by storms during a voyage to marry his new queen. He became utterly convinced that this was the work of witches and dark spirits. Many women were accused of orchestrating this storm through supernatural means, and Agnes was one of them.

During brutal torture, Agnes confessed to the accusations leveled against her. She was then burned at the stake in Castlehill. Today, you can see a memorial to her and many other murdered women at the Witch’s Fountain in Edinburgh.^[1]

9 Würzberg, Germany

Thought to be home to the most brutal witch-hunt in Europe, this city in Bavaria is the site of hundreds of executions. In 1626, that year’s grape harvest was wiped out by an unexpected frost. Of course, these days, you’d simply begrudge unpredictable weather patterns of climate change, but then, it had to be the witches!

Through a series of trials led by the hurriedly formed Witches Committee, hundreds of men, women, and children were murdered. Due to the merciless torture techniques, many victims offered up names of other “witches” indiscriminately, causing the accusations to spread like wildfire.

Nowadays, Würzberg is a charming city with little evidence of such a damning past. You have to scratch below the surface to find any hints to this time of history as there aren’t any overt monuments or plaques.^[2]

8 Colchester, England

A well-known and terrifying figure from the witch-trial period in England was Matthew Hopkins, dubbed the Witchfinder General. He was personally responsible for around 300 trials and 100 executions—usually seeking out easily demonized targets such as people from lower social classes. He was financially rewarded for his efforts which, undeniably, fueled his crusade.

Witchfinder General Hopkins tortured many of his victims in the Castle of Colchester. This well-preserved Norman castle stands today, and in recent times, they unveiled a plaque in memory of the numerous victims. Visitors can tour the castle and its dank dungeons to see the windowless cells where these poor souls were held and tortured.^[3]

7 Prąmnik, Poland

While Poland was not one of the countries with the highest rate of witch trials and executions, it had many incidents where people were accused and killed. Although it was one of the first countries to outlaw the persecution of people for “sorcery,” many districts overtly ignored this law.

Close to Kraków in Poland, you will find the small village of Prąmnik. Here stands a well-preserved medieval watermill in which a haunting tale occurred. Zofia Konstancja and Agnieszka Michałowska were two very unlucky village women who were accused of employing witchcraft to damage the farmland which formed part of the mill. Several monks also reported that the women harmed them, although records from this time are few and far between. The Kasina Wielka witch trial for the accused occurred in September 1634.

The Pramnik Mill still stands in Prądnik Czerwony in Kraków on Dominikana Street. You can sense the dark history if you visit this mill, the building giving off an eerie feeling as it towers high above you.^[4]

6 Pendle, England

Lancashire in England is home to what were some of the most notorious witch trials in the UK. Prejudices at the time considered the people of this Northern region to be wild and untamed, perhaps lending the persecutors extra fuel when condemning its people to death.

Of the 10 women accused, seven came from two local families who were headed by matriarchs. Also well-known herbal healers, they had a business selling remedies and tinctures. The infamous trial went ahead in August 1612, and not one of the accused was permitted a defense or any witnesses to speak on their behalf.

Tourists will find a plethora of homages to these accused women, including a walking trail dedicated to them, complete with statues, and a museum that dives deep into the well-recorded history of witch trials in the area.^[5]

5 Vardø, Norway

A historic fishing village in the far northeast of Norway is the setting where over 90 people accused of witchcraft were executed in cold blood. Many of the accused were indigenous Sami people, mostly women, and many were condemned by their neighbors or husbands. While recorded history during this time was vague, reported accusations included poisoning cattle, causing storms, and communing directly with Satan.

The town of Vardø has marked this awful period of history by commissioning world-famous artist Louise Bourgeois and renowned architect Peter Zumthor to create The Steilneset Memorial. The breathtaking memorial building and sculpture are both visually arresting and thought-provoking as they commemorate those killed and offer a moment of reflection.^[6]

4 Zugarramurdi, Spain

While witch trials were not top of the agenda during the Spanish Inquisition, this didn’t mean that the people of Spain escaped unscathed. The Basque witch trials attempted to stifle the pagan roots of the Basque country, led by Pierre de Lancre, a judge in French Basque territory who had 80 people burned at the stake.

The Cave of the Witches of Zugarramurdi is a natural tunnel where the Inquisition believed witches met to commune with nature and its spirits. These days you can visit this impressive natural wonder and marvel at the dark period in its history. The Museum of Witchcraft in this area of Xareta reframes the idea of witchcraft and looks at many Basque myths and legends.^[7]

3 Triora, Italy

Located on the Piedmonte border, Triora is a picturesque village that boasts five fortresses. Known as The City of Bread, it was once a hugely important place due to the production of grains. One year, during the 17th century, crops were blighted due to extreme heat. Now, knowing the trend of witch trials at the time, it’s easy to see where this is going…

A priest from the Inquisition visited Triora during this time of plight, speaking of witchcraft and sorcery. After being whipped up into a state of frenzy, villagers turned on each other, and it was the poorest women whose fate was decided. To learn more and pay their respect to the victims, visitors can peruse the local museum, where fascinating original documents can be seen.^[8]

2 Torsåker, Sweden

Home to the biggest witch trial in Swedish recorded history, Torsåker saw 71 accused beheaded and burned over the course of one day. This frenzied bloodshed started when the local minister was told by his superiors to weed out witches in his parish.

His method was to have two young boys from the church stand by the door as church members streamed by, looking for an invisible devil’s mark on their foreheads. While it sounds like a myth, this was later recounted and recorded by the grandson of one of the accused. Nowadays, a big memorial stone marks the site of this macabre piece of human history.^[9]

1 Fulda, Germany

Abbot of the Fulda monastery, Balthasar von Dernbach, staunchly supported the thorough investigation of witchcraft within the town. He claimed to be cleansing the area of improper things, using violent force to extract “confessions.” A famous case is of a pregnant woman, Merga Bien, who was burned at the stake while pregnant, after being accused of murdering her second husband. Finally, this dreadful era of witch hunts ended when Dernbach died.

In the town today, a tasteful stone monument mourns the murders of those innocent people accused of witchcraft and sorcery.^[10]

If Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Macbeth, is any indicator, tales of witches always leave a splash in folklore and literature. These sorcerous figures have earned quite the reputation across every corner of the world. And while there is an ample amount of stories regarding women tragically victimized in various witch hunts in Europe and North America, this list will instead tackle a different subset of witches: the hag.

Though it isn’t recommended that one uses this term to describe anyone magically adjacent nowadays, the original usage of hag describes figures who are more solitary, borderline creaturesque in appearance, and often with a penchant for murder and cannibalism. And this list will document ten of these sorts of witches. And unlike figures such as Hecate and Grendel’s Mother, the witches on this list come from more than mere pantheons and poems; these bogeymen were thought to be totally real. Do brush up on your Brothers Grimm before investigating them.

10 Nelly Longarms

Nelly Longarms is first on this list, in as much as she is a superb example of the archetypal witchy hag, or at least the English version. Originating near Durham, England, Nelly is often described as a withered, older woman with long sinewy arms and wild hair. This is likely because many folklorists believe that this sort of figure was originally derived from the worship of the crone or a particular deity associated with guidance, old age, and wisdom in many pre-Christian European pantheons. Over time, however, as these deities became more and more associated with their devilish traits, the more popular Christianity became. Nelly Longarms is no exception.

This hag’s favorite pastime involved luring children to the water and dragging them to a watery grave. Nelly Longarms is a water spirit, and while that is not a prerequisite for this sort of mythological witch, it is a trait shared by many other hags. She is also known for making many odd sounds and magically appearing in village streets and doorways, attempting to lure the curious to their death by drowning.^[1]

9 The Aswang

One of the archetypical hag’s most notorious character traits is her penchant for cannibalism, and what other monster shares this quirk more than the blood-sucking vampire? Originating from the Philippines, the Aswang is a bit of a witch/vampire hybrid, combining the deadliest behaviors of both beings.

The aswang hunts its victims by night, shapeshifting into any animal, from the furtive, silent cat to expert hunters like the wolf. Though, once it finds its victims, it perches on top of their homes until nightfall, using an elongated, prehensile tongue to get a read on the home, much like a snake’s tongue, before burglarizing and cannibalizing. The Filipino legend can also curse its victims, its signature move involving rice, sand, and even bugs pouring out of its victims’ orifices.^[2]

8 Muma Pădurii

Romania is where this next witch calls home. Though she still has a habit of attacking children, she is admittedly a tad bit more benevolent than other hags since she at least helps nurse the animals of the woodlands back to health with her assorted potions. With bulging eyes, withered hands, and a good bit of weight to her, Muma Pădurii also differs from the other hags because she can shapeshift between an old woman and an old man—though those are far from her only forms. She can also change into a beautiful young woman, a nun, and even a tree.

Muma isn’t always cruel, though, only really choosing to enact her revenge on those who’d dare tear down her forest for her home. She even, from time to time, helps children lost in the woods back to their homes and also lacks the cannibal tendencies of other entries on this list. According to Romanian legend, she is also married to the legendary Father of the Forest.^[3]

7 Jenny Greenteeth

Next on this list is the enigmatic Jenny Greenteeth, Nelly Longarm’s more famous and colorful folkloric counterpart. Jenny also differs from Nelly because she’s a bit less picky in her choice of victim, choosing to drown both children and elderly people instead of just children. She also has more than one hiding spot and can sometimes be seen lurking in the branches of willows and other swampland trees.

Originating from the Lancashire area of England, this Hag is described as having green skin, long, disheveled black hair, and razor-sharp teeth. She is also claimed to have made her way over to North America, as superstitious sailors boating near Erie, Pennsylvania, claim to see her swimming Lake Erie.^[4]

6 Soucouyant

This next legend can supposedly be found in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Though the term describes a type of witch more than a single entity, the soucouyant certainly cements itself in the wicked witch canon by possessing the ability to magically transform into a fireball for transport, as well as a wicked thirst for mortal blood. The soucouyant can also be allegedly found as far west as Jamaica and as far north as Louisiana.

Other tricks up this hag’s sleeves involve her shapeshifting ability to steal her victims’ skin if the blood loss results in death. And she can even fit through the tiniest holes, such as a lock or crack in the wall, in order to enter homes. There are ways to make a getaway, however, and it is claimed that if you place a bowl of rice in front of your door, she’ll count every grain before making an authentic pursuit.^[5]

5 Yamauba

While technically, the Yamauba is a Yokai of Japanese legend, it has the exact appearance needed to compare it to the other entries on this list. When trying to blend in, this legend looks like any other woman in her seventies—unless you can spot her horns and fangs after a provocation. She is said to live in huts along the roadside, offering shelter to travelers without it. However, if you see her demonic attributes with your own eyes, she will attempt to devour you on sight.

Unlike other entries on this list, Yamauba describes a number of yokai, as opposed to just one figure. Her origin story claims that this spirit appeared when a woman with less-than-historically appreciated habits wandered into the wilderness and developed more demonic attributes. It is also claimed that some families living in poverty abandoned their daughters to ease their burden and care more properly for the other family members. Then, these unfortunate girls would develop into the yokai after living alone for so long.^[6]

4 Obayifo

This next entry is a particularly illuminating entity from Ashanti folklore of modern-day Ghana. And that choice of vernacular is a play on words because the Obayifo is said to have an uncontrollable glow coming from their armpits and anus. As a vampire-like mythological creature, Obayifo are very common and may inhabit the bodies of ordinary people. This is because, much like the Yamauba, the Obayifo is something you become after dabbling in the Ashanti form of witchcraft known as “Bayi.”

What this particular witch-slash-vampire does is hunt hapless victims for their blood and life energy; they can even possess unsuspecting travelers, completely taking over their bodies. The Obayifo can also travel through the sky by transforming into a glowing ball of light and has a particular appetite for children, as well as the life energy of newly-growing crops. In fact, one core character trait of the Obayifo is that they are always, always hungry, no matter how much they eat.^[7]

3 Black Annis

Described as having pale blue skin, sharp iron claws instead of fingers, and raven black hair, Black Annis is an enduring legendary hag, making her supposed home in the Dane Hills near Leicestershire, England. Much like Hansel and Gretal’s primary antagonist, this witch has the diabolical urge to feast on children and allegedly hunts any who carelessly wander through her domain, leaving their skins to tan on the tree branches above her cave-home. It is thought that Black Annis was a wicked fae and is even sometimes tied to the Celtic deity Anu, though it is tricky to pin down her exact origins.

Black Annis also possesses the ability to roar an intensely loud roar that can supposedly be heard from even five miles away. You can tell she’s prowling your village, looking for babies to snatch from the window, by the incessant grinding of her teeth. In an attempt to drive her from her cave, the folk of Leicestershire led a “hunt” every Christmas, using a dead cat stuffed with aniseed to draw the witch from her cave to the home of the mayor, though no hunt ever successfully produced a blue-toned body.^[8]

2 La Lechuza

While many of the witches on this list can be described with features often associated with old age, La Lechuza takes it a step further and dons a more avian approach. She’s described as a giant, seven-foot-tall owl with a fifteen-foot wingspan and an old crone’s face. This witch’s legend comes from Mexico, long before the Spanish explorers arrived. La Lechuza is an example of a bruja, or a traditional Mexican witch, though her Spanish name does directly translate into “The Owl.”

La Lechuza’s modus operandi involves more of an origin story than other entries on this list, however. It was originally thought that “The Owl” was a woman convicted of practicing evil magic and was put to death via a witch trial. Unlike most witch trials, however, this figure came back as a massive owl, tricking unsuspecting passers-by with mimicry of babies crying or frightened women before swooping down and getting in a bit of vengeful murder herself. And unlike other witches on this list, people claim to witness La Lachuza swooping after them, even into the 21st century.^[9]

1 Baba Yaga

Fans of Ant-Man have been waiting for this reference, and indeed, she is perhaps the most famous of wicked, wizened witches in the world. She is described as an old woman far larger than most people with an equally large nose and is often found working over her stove or lounging about her humble abode. She lives in a mobile hut that walks around on chicken legs, and she rides in the sky on a mortar, pushing herself along with a pestle as an oar. She is the Baba Yaga.

One of the most prolific figures in Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga may have begun her legend as an Earth Mother Goddess in the region. Still, other scholars claim that she is instead related to the deity of the dead, Iagaia Baba. She is first mentioned by name, however, in the mid-18th century. While she often seeks children to stick in her stew, using geese for reconnaissance, she has occasionally played as a benefactor in a handful of stories. And she has, on occasion, impersonated Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother by helping free Vasilissa the Beautiful from a wicked stepmother.^[10]