October 31, 2025 • 20 mins
Two mysteries, one restless question: how far will fear carry a story? We mark Halloween by walking two grim paths, through the Pendle witch trials of 1612 and out to the storm-beaten Flannan Isles, where three lighthouse keepers vanished without a trace. Along the way, we unpack how belief, law, and isolation turn everyday details into legends that refuse to fade.
If this journey through history’s darker corners sparks your curiosity, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help others find their way to the trail.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:14):
Welcome to Blue Trail, the path through
history's darkest crimes andstrangest mysteries.
Today, we've got somethingspecial because it's Halloween.
So we're not following onetrail, but two.
From the moors of Lancashire tothe cliffs of Scotland.
(00:37):
This is the Clue Trail Halloweenspecial.
For our first story, we go backto 1612, to the hills of
Lancashire, where life was hardand superstition was part of
(00:59):
everyday life.
Beneath Pendle Hill, familiesworked the land and tried to
make ends meet in a time whenfear and fate went hand in hand.
Before we get into what happenedthere, it helps to understand
the world they lived in.
(01:22):
King James I was ruling Englandthen, and he had a deep
fascination with witchcraft.
He didn't just believe in it, hestudied it.
In 1597, he published a bookcalled Demonology, which set out
(01:42):
his views on witchcraft and howto identify witches.
In it, he described witches asservants of the devil and warned
that their powers were real anddangerous.
To King James, witchcraft wasn'tonly a religious concern, it was
(02:05):
also a crime against the Crown.
So when Parliament passed theWitchcraft Act of 1604, making
it a capital offense to speakwith evil spirits or use charms
for harm, the country was readyto see witchcraft everywhere.
And in Lancashire, that fearsoon became real when, in March
(02:29):
1612, a traveling trader namedJohn Law, known then as a
peddler, who was someone whosold small household goods, was
walking along the road near thevillage of Corn.
There, he met a young womancalled Alison DeVice.
(02:50):
She asked if she could buy somepins from him.
Nothing unusual, since peddlersoften carried such things.
But strangely enough, he refusedto sell her any, which was
rather odd.
Mere moments later, out ofnowhere, John Law suddenly
(03:14):
collapsed on the road and lostthe use of one side of his body.
It was like he was struck by acurse, and word spread quickly
that Alison had cursed him forrefusing to sell her the pens.
In truth, people already sawAlison and her family with
(03:38):
suspicion.
They were poor and they lived onthe edge of the community near
Pendle Hill.
Her grandmother had a reputationas a healer, so when John Law
collapsed, many didn't see it asa coincidence.
To them, it confirmed what theyalready believed: that Alison
(04:00):
and her family had dealings inwitchcraft.
With their fate already decidedin the eyes of the neighbors,
the news of possible witchcrafttraveled quickly.
When it reached Roger Nowell,the magistrate of Red Hall, he
(04:20):
decided to investigate andAlison was brought in for
questioning.
Now questioning in those dayswas very different.
There were no lawyers or realprotections, and the accused
were often questioned directlyby magistrates for hours,
sometimes with intimidation orthreats.
(04:45):
Confession was seen as proof ofrepentance, so many people ended
up admitting to things theymight never have done.
So, in that setting, whereconfession was seen as a sign of
repentance, Alison eventuallybroke down.
(05:05):
She admitted that she had cursedJohn Law and claimed that the
devil had helped her do it.
But she didn't stop there.
She also accused her own mother,Elizabeth, her grandmother, and
members of a rival family whohad long-standing disputes with
(05:25):
her family.
Constables arrested those Aliceand Hadden and took them to
Lancaster Castle, where theywere kept in dark, crowded
cells.
Before long, rumors began tospread about a meeting at Malkin
Tower, the home of the Devicefamily.
(05:47):
And people said that on GoodFriday, members of the Device
family and a few neighbors hadgathered there to plan how to
free the prisoners and to takerevenge on those who had accused
them.
And as the rumors grew, so didthe number of people accused.
(06:08):
By the summer of 1612, 12 peoplewere charged with witchcraft and
murder.
Their trial began on August 18,1612.
It was led by two judges, SirEdward Bromley and Sir James
Alton, both familiar with KingJames' ideas about witchcraft
(06:32):
from his book Demonology.
And perhaps unsurprisingly, inthat courtroom, superstition and
law were closely tied together,and every accusation, no matter
how unlikely it seemed, wastaken seriously.
(06:52):
Thomas Potts, the court clerk,recorded the proceedings in a
book, and his notes include somestriking and sometimes
unbelievable details.
The grandma, elderly and almostblind, claimed she had met a
spirit in the shape of a boywith one half of his coat black
(07:15):
and the other one brown.
She also explained that if awitch has one mark, then she has
one spirit, but if she has twomarks, then she has two spirits.
As though witchcraft could becounted and classified.
Thomas Potts described how JohnLaw had been left after his
(07:36):
collapse, with his eyes and facedeformed and his speech not well
understood, and that to thoselistening, it was proof that
Alison's curse had worked.
One other accused was said tohave confessed to using wax
pictures, which were smallfigures marked with an enemy's
(08:00):
name.
This could be pricked, melted,or buried to cause harm.
Such claims were actually commonat that time, and to those in
court, they sounded entirelybelievable.
But the most damaging testimonycame not from the adult, but
(08:22):
from a child.
That was nine-year-old JanetDevice, the daughter and
granddaughter of the accused,who was brought to the stand.
Thomas Potts wrote that the girlin the stand said her mother is
a witch and that she knows thisto be true.
(08:44):
And that was the moment thatsealed the fate of nearly
everyone accused that day.
Her words carried enormousweight, not only because she was
young, but because in thatdeeply religious society, a
child was often seen as pure andincapable of lying.
(09:06):
So the judges accepted herstatement as the truth.
Over the two days of hearings,ten out of the twelve accused
were found guilty of witchcraftand murder.
One of the accused died inprison before the trial began,
and another was found notguilty.
(09:28):
Those condemned were taken toGallows Hill near Lancaster and
on a summer's day in August 1612were hanged before a crowd that
had gathered to watch.
Their bodies were left hangingfor some time as a warning to
others who might be tempted bywitchcraft.
(09:51):
The Pendle Witch Trials becamefamous in English history,
largely because it was so welldocumented.
Thomas Potts' book recordedevery accusation, confession,
and word of the trial.
And that was a rare level ofdetail for that time.
As for John Law, the peddlerwhose collapse began it all,
(10:16):
modern writers consider amedical cause, such as a stroke,
consistent with the accountsthat he lost the use of one
side.
Though nothing can be provennow.
But in a world where everymisfortune demanded an
explanation, witchcraft was theeasiest one to believe.
(10:40):
Today, Bendle Hill stillattracts visitors and ghost
hunters alike.
Candles are left to the ruinssaid to be Malkin Tower, and
each Halloween, people stillwhisper the names of those who
lost their lives to asuperstition.
(11:25):
To the turn of the 20th century,and to the far northwest of
Scotland in the sea around theouter Hebrides.
Of this coast lie the FlannanIsles, seven small rocky islands
rising from the Atlantic wherestorms come fast and the sea
(11:48):
never truly rests.
It was on one of these islandsthat the Northern Lighthouse
Board built a new light in 1899.
This was a 75-foot tower whosebeam could be seen for 24 miles
across the sea.
(12:08):
And in this remote place livedthe three men who kept the light
burning (12:14):
James Ducat, Thomas Marshall, and Donald MacArthur.
They lived in near totalisolation.
Their only connection to theoutside world was a small boat
that came in when the weatherallowed.
(12:44):
The sea around the Hebrides wasrestless and grey with heavy
swells rolling in from theAtlantic.
For days, gales had swept acrossthe coast, cutting the islands
from the mainland.
The men inside the lighthousewould have heard the wind
battering against the walls andwaves crashing below.
(13:07):
When the relief vessel Hesperusfinally reached the lighthouse
on December 26th, the crewnoticed something immediately.
The lighthouse stood dark.
There was no beam and no signal.
Climbing the steep rail to thetop of the cliff, they found the
(13:31):
gate unlocked and the doorclosed, but unlatched.
Inside, the beds were made, butthe clock had stopped and a meal
sat untouched on the table.
One chair was overturned as ifsomeone had stood up in a hurry.
(13:51):
Also, two sets of heavy coatswere reported missing, while the
third still hung neatly on itsback.
And the men?
They were gone.
There was no sign of themanywhere.
The investigation beganimmediately with Superintendent
(14:12):
Robert Merhead of the NorthernLighthouse Board leading the
inspection himself.
After all, three mendisappearing from a lighthouse
in a remote island was not aneasy mystery to explain.
His report described the WestLanding as badly damaged, with
(14:33):
turf ripped away, iron railingsbent in a manner difficult to
believe unless actually seen,and stones weighing close to a
ton shifted from their place.
It was strange because therehave been no reports of a storm
powerful enough to cause suchdestruction.
(14:56):
Later retellings claimed thelighthouse log recorded lines
like, prayers, all men afraid,and on the 15th, storm ended.
God is all over.
With nothing else to go on andno sign of the man anywhere, the
(15:17):
official verdict was death bymisadventure.
It was believed that a largewave had struck the island and
swept them away as they tried tosecure equipment on the landing.
But although the investigationended, that didn't mean the
(15:38):
theories and speculationsstopped.
They only grew over time.
There are three mainexplanations often discussed.
The first theory is the mostpractical.
It suggests that one of the menwent down to the West Landing to
secure equipment during roughseas, was caught by a sudden
(16:01):
wave, and the others rushed tohelp, ending in all three being
swept away in the process.
Considering the missing codesand the routine of their duties,
it seems likely.
It's the explanation theLighthouse Board accepted at the
time, and the one mosthistorians still believe to be
(16:24):
the most likely.
The second theory focuses on afight between the men.
Life on the island was harsh,and with weeks of isolation,
constant wind, and the weight ofresponsibility for keeping the
light burning, some believe anargument may have broken out,
(16:45):
turning physical at the wrongmoment.
One could have fallen or beeninjured, and in the confusion
that followed, the others werelost to the sea.
The third theory leans intofolklore.
The islands have long beensurrounded by superstition with
(17:07):
many stories of sea spirits,ghosts, and the little men of
Flanan, which are said to besmall otherworldly beings that
guard the rocks from intruders.
Over time, some began to believethat the keepers met a fate not
(17:27):
of this world.
There is no evidence for that,of course, but it's an idea that
still lingers in localimagination, especially on
nights when the waves rise highand the wind sounds almost like
voices.
(17:48):
The mystery of the Flannan Islesremains unsolved, and more than
a century later, the story stilldrifts between fact and
folklore.
And on stormy nights, some saythe light in the tower still
flickers as if the keepers neverreally left.
(18:33):
You can find extra content onPatreon.
Thank you for listening and forwalking these trails with me.
Welcome to Blue Trail, the path through
history's darkest crimes andstrangest mysteries.
Today, we've got somethingspecial because it's Halloween.
So we're not following onetrail, but two.
From the moors of Lancashire tothe cliffs of Scotland.
(00:37):
This is the Clue Trail Halloweenspecial.
For our first story, we go backto 1612, to the hills of
Lancashire, where life was hardand superstition was part of
(00:59):
everyday life.
Beneath Pendle Hill, familiesworked the land and tried to
make ends meet in a time whenfear and fate went hand in hand.
Before we get into what happenedthere, it helps to understand
the world they lived in.
(01:22):
King James I was ruling Englandthen, and he had a deep
fascination with witchcraft.
He didn't just believe in it, hestudied it.
In 1597, he published a bookcalled Demonology, which set out
(01:42):
his views on witchcraft and howto identify witches.
In it, he described witches asservants of the devil and warned
that their powers were real anddangerous.
To King James, witchcraft wasn'tonly a religious concern, it was
(02:05):
also a crime against the Crown.
So when Parliament passed theWitchcraft Act of 1604, making
it a capital offense to speakwith evil spirits or use charms
for harm, the country was readyto see witchcraft everywhere.
And in Lancashire, that fearsoon became real when, in March
(02:29):
1612, a traveling trader namedJohn Law, known then as a
peddler, who was someone whosold small household goods, was
walking along the road near thevillage of Corn.
There, he met a young womancalled Alison DeVice.
(02:50):
She asked if she could buy somepins from him.
Nothing unusual, since peddlersoften carried such things.
But strangely enough, he refusedto sell her any, which was
rather odd.
Mere moments later, out ofnowhere, John Law suddenly
(03:14):
collapsed on the road and lostthe use of one side of his body.
It was like he was struck by acurse, and word spread quickly
that Alison had cursed him forrefusing to sell her the pens.
In truth, people already sawAlison and her family with
(03:38):
suspicion.
They were poor and they lived onthe edge of the community near
Pendle Hill.
Her grandmother had a reputationas a healer, so when John Law
collapsed, many didn't see it asa coincidence.
To them, it confirmed what theyalready believed: that Alison
(04:00):
and her family had dealings inwitchcraft.
With their fate already decidedin the eyes of the neighbors,
the news of possible witchcrafttraveled quickly.
When it reached Roger Nowell,the magistrate of Red Hall, he
(04:20):
decided to investigate andAlison was brought in for
questioning.
Now questioning in those dayswas very different.
There were no lawyers or realprotections, and the accused
were often questioned directlyby magistrates for hours,
sometimes with intimidation orthreats.
(04:45):
Confession was seen as proof ofrepentance, so many people ended
up admitting to things theymight never have done.
So, in that setting, whereconfession was seen as a sign of
repentance, Alison eventuallybroke down.
(05:05):
She admitted that she had cursedJohn Law and claimed that the
devil had helped her do it.
But she didn't stop there.
She also accused her own mother,Elizabeth, her grandmother, and
members of a rival family whohad long-standing disputes with
(05:25):
her family.
Constables arrested those Aliceand Hadden and took them to
Lancaster Castle, where theywere kept in dark, crowded
cells.
Before long, rumors began tospread about a meeting at Malkin
Tower, the home of the Devicefamily.
(05:47):
And people said that on GoodFriday, members of the Device
family and a few neighbors hadgathered there to plan how to
free the prisoners and to takerevenge on those who had accused
them.
And as the rumors grew, so didthe number of people accused.
(06:08):
By the summer of 1612, 12 peoplewere charged with witchcraft and
murder.
Their trial began on August 18,1612.
It was led by two judges, SirEdward Bromley and Sir James
Alton, both familiar with KingJames' ideas about witchcraft
(06:32):
from his book Demonology.
And perhaps unsurprisingly, inthat courtroom, superstition and
law were closely tied together,and every accusation, no matter
how unlikely it seemed, wastaken seriously.
(06:52):
Thomas Potts, the court clerk,recorded the proceedings in a
book, and his notes include somestriking and sometimes
unbelievable details.
The grandma, elderly and almostblind, claimed she had met a
spirit in the shape of a boywith one half of his coat black
(07:15):
and the other one brown.
She also explained that if awitch has one mark, then she has
one spirit, but if she has twomarks, then she has two spirits.
As though witchcraft could becounted and classified.
Thomas Potts described how JohnLaw had been left after his
(07:36):
collapse, with his eyes and facedeformed and his speech not well
understood, and that to thoselistening, it was proof that
Alison's curse had worked.
One other accused was said tohave confessed to using wax
pictures, which were smallfigures marked with an enemy's
(08:00):
name.
This could be pricked, melted,or buried to cause harm.
Such claims were actually commonat that time, and to those in
court, they sounded entirelybelievable.
But the most damaging testimonycame not from the adult, but
(08:22):
from a child.
That was nine-year-old JanetDevice, the daughter and
granddaughter of the accused,who was brought to the stand.
Thomas Potts wrote that the girlin the stand said her mother is
a witch and that she knows thisto be true.
(08:44):
And that was the moment thatsealed the fate of nearly
everyone accused that day.
Her words carried enormousweight, not only because she was
young, but because in thatdeeply religious society, a
child was often seen as pure andincapable of lying.
(09:06):
So the judges accepted herstatement as the truth.
Over the two days of hearings,ten out of the twelve accused
were found guilty of witchcraftand murder.
One of the accused died inprison before the trial began,
and another was found notguilty.
(09:28):
Those condemned were taken toGallows Hill near Lancaster and
on a summer's day in August 1612were hanged before a crowd that
had gathered to watch.
Their bodies were left hangingfor some time as a warning to
others who might be tempted bywitchcraft.
(09:51):
The Pendle Witch Trials becamefamous in English history,
largely because it was so welldocumented.
Thomas Potts' book recordedevery accusation, confession,
and word of the trial.
And that was a rare level ofdetail for that time.
As for John Law, the peddlerwhose collapse began it all,
(10:16):
modern writers consider amedical cause, such as a stroke,
consistent with the accountsthat he lost the use of one
side.
Though nothing can be provennow.
But in a world where everymisfortune demanded an
explanation, witchcraft was theeasiest one to believe.
(10:40):
Today, Bendle Hill stillattracts visitors and ghost
hunters alike.
Candles are left to the ruinssaid to be Malkin Tower, and
each Halloween, people stillwhisper the names of those who
lost their lives to asuperstition.
(11:25):
To the turn of the 20th century,and to the far northwest of
Scotland in the sea around theouter Hebrides.
Of this coast lie the FlannanIsles, seven small rocky islands
rising from the Atlantic wherestorms come fast and the sea
(11:48):
never truly rests.
It was on one of these islandsthat the Northern Lighthouse
Board built a new light in 1899.
This was a 75-foot tower whosebeam could be seen for 24 miles
across the sea.
(12:08):
And in this remote place livedthe three men who kept the light
burning (12:14):
James Ducat, Thomas Marshall, and Donald MacArthur.
They lived in near totalisolation.
Their only connection to theoutside world was a small boat
that came in when the weatherallowed.
(12:44):
The sea around the Hebrides wasrestless and grey with heavy
swells rolling in from theAtlantic.
For days, gales had swept acrossthe coast, cutting the islands
from the mainland.
The men inside the lighthousewould have heard the wind
battering against the walls andwaves crashing below.
(13:07):
When the relief vessel Hesperusfinally reached the lighthouse
on December 26th, the crewnoticed something immediately.
The lighthouse stood dark.
There was no beam and no signal.
Climbing the steep rail to thetop of the cliff, they found the
(13:31):
gate unlocked and the doorclosed, but unlatched.
Inside, the beds were made, butthe clock had stopped and a meal
sat untouched on the table.
One chair was overturned as ifsomeone had stood up in a hurry.
(13:51):
Also, two sets of heavy coatswere reported missing, while the
third still hung neatly on itsback.
And the men?
They were gone.
There was no sign of themanywhere.
The investigation beganimmediately with Superintendent
(14:12):
Robert Merhead of the NorthernLighthouse Board leading the
inspection himself.
After all, three mendisappearing from a lighthouse
in a remote island was not aneasy mystery to explain.
His report described the WestLanding as badly damaged, with
(14:33):
turf ripped away, iron railingsbent in a manner difficult to
believe unless actually seen,and stones weighing close to a
ton shifted from their place.
It was strange because therehave been no reports of a storm
powerful enough to cause suchdestruction.
(14:56):
Later retellings claimed thelighthouse log recorded lines
like, prayers, all men afraid,and on the 15th, storm ended.
God is all over.
With nothing else to go on andno sign of the man anywhere, the
(15:17):
official verdict was death bymisadventure.
It was believed that a largewave had struck the island and
swept them away as they tried tosecure equipment on the landing.
But although the investigationended, that didn't mean the
(15:38):
theories and speculationsstopped.
They only grew over time.
There are three mainexplanations often discussed.
The first theory is the mostpractical.
It suggests that one of the menwent down to the West Landing to
secure equipment during roughseas, was caught by a sudden
(16:01):
wave, and the others rushed tohelp, ending in all three being
swept away in the process.
Considering the missing codesand the routine of their duties,
it seems likely.
It's the explanation theLighthouse Board accepted at the
time, and the one mosthistorians still believe to be
(16:24):
the most likely.
The second theory focuses on afight between the men.
Life on the island was harsh,and with weeks of isolation,
constant wind, and the weight ofresponsibility for keeping the
light burning, some believe anargument may have broken out,
(16:45):
turning physical at the wrongmoment.
One could have fallen or beeninjured, and in the confusion
that followed, the others werelost to the sea.
The third theory leans intofolklore.
The islands have long beensurrounded by superstition with
(17:07):
many stories of sea spirits,ghosts, and the little men of
Flanan, which are said to besmall otherworldly beings that
guard the rocks from intruders.
Over time, some began to believethat the keepers met a fate not
(17:27):
of this world.
There is no evidence for that,of course, but it's an idea that
still lingers in localimagination, especially on
nights when the waves rise highand the wind sounds almost like
voices.
(17:48):
The mystery of the Flannan Islesremains unsolved, and more than
a century later, the story stilldrifts between fact and
folklore.
And on stormy nights, some saythe light in the tower still
flickers as if the keepers neverreally left.
(18:33):
You can find extra content onPatreon.
Thank you for listening and forwalking these trails with me.
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