Stromness Dragon

Hello folks….

Working on a wee book about the darker side of Orkney history. Would appreciate some feedback…..

The Trial of Alison Balfour

The Earl's Palace

In the centre of Kirkwall stands the magnificent Earl’s Palace, one of the finest Renaissance palaces in Scotland. It was built in 1607, at the behest of the Earl of Orkney, Patrick Stewart, the notorious Black Patie. He was a brute of a man, a tyrant who treated the people of Orkney very badly.

Earl Patrick was unpopular not only with Orkney, but also with his own family. His younger brother John had designs on the earldom himself, and gathered together a group of friends to plot the Earl’s downfall. Whilst planning their schemes, it was suggested by one man that perhaps they needed a little bit of otherworldly help…a spell, or an enchantment, perhaps.

It was said at the time that a local woman, Alison Balfour, was skilled in the arts of potions and poisons, and the plotters, it seems, made arrangements to consult with Alison. Whether they ever did approach her, history does not tell, and it came to naught because the plot was soon discovered by Patrick. He was furious and immediately imprisoned the conspirators, including his brother, ready to see them all hanged for rebellion. However, John Stewart and the other plotters had a defence ready. It was the witch, Alison Balfour, they claimed. It was all her doing. She had bewitched them, cast enchantments, and planned to kill the Earl for her evil master, the Devil.

Patrick immediately sent his priest, Henry Colville, to seize and interrogate Alison. She protested her innocence, saying she had never met John Stewart and knew nothing of the attempt to overthrow the Earl. In order to encourage confession, Colville ordered that she be put in the instrument of torture known as the caspieclaws. This was a metal cage or frame in which the leg was encased, and then placed over a fire to roast slowly. Enduring several hours of this, Alison refused to confess that she knew anything of witchcraft or conspiracies. Colville was determined to extract a confession, so further encouragement was required. Alison’s husband was taken in for questioning, and in front of Alison, they tortured him by attaching enormous heavy weights to his legs as he hung in chains. She still refused to confess, so her 14 year old son was brought before her, and put in the boots, wooden boxes that were nailed around his legs. Wedges of wood were hammered in to tighten the grip and his legs were crushed to a bloody mess. Still Alison maintained her innocence.

The last straw came when her 7 year old daughter was brought before her, and the pinniwinkles, or thumbscrews, were applied to her tiny fingers. Finally Alison broke, and signed a full confession of witchcraft and conspiracy, on the understanding that her life would be spared, and so would the lives of her husband and children.

Henry Colville was nearly true to his word. Alison’s family was indeed spared, but everything they owned was taken from them and they were expelled from Orkney. Alison herself, though, was taken up to the hill now known as the Clay Loan, tied to a wooden stake, and burnt alive.

John Stewart and the rest of the plotters were found innocent of all acts of rebellion, and Patrick Stewart declared that his earldom was a more Godly place because one evil sinner had been found out and punished accordingly. It seems that only the priest, Henry Colville, got his true comeuppance. Local stories have it that he was pursued to Shetland by an angry mob, where they tore him limb from limb, tore out his heart, and drank his blood. Justice, perhaps, but of a very rough sort.

Earl Patrick’s Palace, whilst remaining a beautiful example of early 17^th century architecture, hides a very nasty past indeed.