Click here for audio
Forres abounds with stories of witches and wise women and many people must remember that in Shakespeare’s famous tale, Macbeth and Banquo meet three witches while en route to Forres. Grisly local legend has it that when people were accused of being witches, they would be put into barrels spiked with nails and rolled down Cluny Hill before being set alight and buried where they died. This stone is the only remaining original marker of three such stones that stood near here and attracts many visitors each year. According to the legend the witches are then trapped inside the nearby Sueno Stone but will escape if the stone is ever broken.
Another story that is a little more colourful but contains no truth was that this 3ft square iron bound stone was laid here to mark the graves of the three witches who bewitched King Duncan in 960 in Shakespeare’s classic tale of murder and skulduggery,
Macbeth. A sister stone is said to exist in the garden of nearby Trafalgar Place. Unfortunately the third stone was broken up in 1802, at which time the remaining stone was also damaged. The stone carries an inscribed plate stating WITCHES STONE.
From Cluny Hill witches were said to have been rolled in stout barrels through which spikes were driven. Where the barrels stopped they were burned with their mangled contents. This stone marks the site of one such burning.