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Scotland’s last witch
Episode 1808

Scotland’s last witch

Malcolm Gaskill explores the incredible story of Helen Duncan, the last woman to be convicted and imprisoned under the 1735 Witchcraft Act

HistoryExtra podcast · Immediate

November 3, 202342m 46s

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Show Notes

Nicknamed ‘Hellish Nell’ from childhood, spiritualist medium Helen Duncan made a living from claiming to communicate with the spirits of the dead at seances around Britain. But in 1944, her ‘psychic predictions’ of wartime tragedy saw her become the last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act of 1735. Malcolm Gaskill explores the remarkable events that led to Duncan’s incarceration and investigates the mysterious world of 20th-century spiritualism.


The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.

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