bo`ness witchess

Hold the stone in your right hand and concentrate on your wish. Walk deosil (clockwise) around the well/cauldron, three times while saying the following: 
“I circle thrice and it’s begun,
 I make this wish, 
Of Moon and Sun. 
With harm to none, 
And good to all, 
this spell is done. 
So mote it be!”

Bo'ness Witches
Janet Conochie, spouse of Bo'ness cooper James Bruckley was found guilty of witchcraft and along with two other witches burnt at the stake at Corbiehall.

During 1648 a Commission of Gentlemen from the Parish of Carriden found six women guilty of witchcraft. All were found guilty and duly executed.

The following year Isobel Wilson is charged with practising witchcraft

but surprisingly in this case the Carriden Parish Council found the accusation to be false.

On Tuesday the 23^rd December 1679 between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. John Craw, Annable Thomsone, Margaret Hamilton, Margaret Pringle, Bessie Vicar and another Margaret Hamilton were taken from the Tollbooth in South Street to the flat glebe land at the west end of Corbiehall wirried at the steak till dead and thereafter have their bodies burnt.

In 1704 Anna Wood was accused by Robert Nimmo to have been one of a group of six witches that chased him when he was walking home from Linlithgow to Carriden shore. He could however only identify Anna Wood and claimed to have witnessed her changing from a cat to human form and from a bird to human form. Anna was found guilty by Carriden Kirk Session, but fearing for her life fled before hearing the verdict, and was never seen in Bo'ness again: at least not in human form!

It is said that the Bo'ness Witches were burnt at the east end of Pan Braes near the then shoreline. There was for many years a large circular piece of ground where grass didn't grow legend to be the spot. This would probably be near where 101 Corbiehall now stands.

Carriden seams to have had its own site of execution, rumoured to be where the "Witches Stone" is situated today; about 200 meters south-west of where the original Carriden Church was. Children still run round this stone three times before making a wish.

http://www.bo-ness.org.uk/html/history/witches.htm