A NATIONAL memorial at Kelty to commemorate Scots who were killed for being a witch has come a step forward.

The Remembering the Accused Witches of Scotland (RAWS) has come to an agreement in principle with National Pride, who bought the former St Ninians coal mine last year, to lease an area of land at the site for the attraction.

The volunteer team will now turn their focus to coming up with a plan for the site and decide what shape the memorial will take.

RAWS Secretary Donald Campbell said a multi-agency meeting is now planned for next month in their bid to take the initiative forward.

"It will be a round table thing and a meeting of all the people we think can help us, the National Lottery funding, Fife Council, Historic Scotland. All these sort of people," he said. "As far as a memorial goes, we are quite open to having some form of submission from other people – architects, artists – on the form it will take.

"The site is between five to six acres and is enough to have a visitor centre of some kind. We are looking to have some kind of archive as well. We have some archive material but we could expand on that and have some displays."

Mr Campbell is looking forward to having a place where those accused of Witchcraft can be remembered.

"We must ensure they are not forgotten and that the likes of this dreadful persecution of those marginalised in our society never happens again," he added.

"We are very much moving away from the historical image of witchcraft to what it was really like – the word is definitely spreading.

"The bottom line is they were just ordinary people persecuted and tortured. We are trying to highlight that."

Irene Bisset, Chair of National Pride, was pleased they were able to help with a suitable site.

“We are delighted to accommodate at St Ninians the proposed national memorial to those accused of witchcraft who perished throughout Scotland," she said.

"Ignorance, fear, greed, intolerance are dangers constantly with us and a national memorial that reminds us of past wrongdoing should help us be kinder to one another today.”