Witch trial history · Memorial · County Antrim
Islandmagee Witch Trial
Islandmagee Community Garden · County Antrim · Northern Ireland
A quiet memorial on the Islandmagee Peninsula marks the people convicted in Ireland’s last known witch trials – a case whose surviving documents make the real history stranger, and more troubling, than any legend.
Islandmagee coastline — Rossographer / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0. Landscape context rather than the memorial itself.
A small memorial with a much bigger story behind it
Islandmagee is not a themed attraction and it does not need to be. The reason to stop here is the history: accusations that began in this community led to the last known witch trials on the island of Ireland. The memorial stone, relocated to Islandmagee Community Garden in April 2026, gives that story a tangible place in the landscape where it began.
At a glance
Checked 24 August 2026What happened in 1711
The case survives in unusually rich documentary form, including depositions, newspaper reports, letters and a contemporary pamphlet. That lets the history be separated from the supernatural claims made at the time.
Mary Dunbar’s accusations
Eighteen-year-old Mary Dunbar accused a group of local women of attacking and tormenting her through witchcraft and spirit forms.
The accusations were treated seriously within a culture where demonic possession and witchcraft were accepted possibilities.Eight women convicted
Eight women were tried at Carrickfergus Assizes under the 1586 Irish Witchcraft Act and found guilty.
Contemporary reporting records sentences of one year and a day in prison and four appearances in the pillory.William Sellor
William Sellor was prosecuted later that year, bringing the number of people commemorated in the Islandmagee case to nine.
Modern scholarship treats the supernatural accusations as historical claims made by witnesses, not evidence that witchcraft actually occurred.The accusations are documented. The witchcraft is not.
The Islandmagee case is sometimes retold as a supernatural story, but the strongest material here is historical. We know people made accusations of bewitchment and demonic possession; we know defendants were prosecuted and convicted; and we have surviving records that show how those claims were understood in 1711.
None of that proves that the alleged supernatural events occurred. The importance of the site lies in what those beliefs did to real people.
A difficult story that now has somewhere to be remembered
The memorial’s new setting changes the visitor experience. Instead of a detached plaque, the stone now sits within a community garden deliberately framed around care, inclusion and reflection.
The memorial returned
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council confirmed that the stone was moved to Islandmagee Community Garden in April 2026.
Beneath ‘Willow’
The stone now sits beneath a garden sculpture called ‘Willow’, described by the community as offering symbolic and physical protection.
The paper trail survives
Depositions, reports, letters and other contemporary material have been collated by researchers, giving the case unusual historical depth.
Make it a history stop, not just a photograph
The memorial is deliberately modest. The best visit uses it as the starting point for the story, then adds the museum material at Carrickfergus if you want the documents, interpretation and fuller chronology.
A simple Islandmagee visit
Allow a short stop for the memorial itself, or turn it into a longer historical detour by continuing to Carrickfergus.
Start at the community garden
Head for Islandmagee Community Garden on Ballystrudder Road and look for the memorial beneath the Willow sculpture.
Read the names and context
This is a remembrance site rather than a spectacle. Give the memorial a few minutes rather than treating it as a quick photo stop.
Continue to Carrickfergus
Carrickfergus Museum provides the stronger historical interpretation and connects the Islandmagee accusations with the town where the trials were heard.
Finding the memorial
ParaMaps uses an approximate arrival point for the community garden because an authoritative memorial-level coordinate has not been published.
Ballystrudder Road
Islandmagee, County Antrim
For the fuller story
Carrickfergus Museum holds contemporary documents and interactive interpretation connected with the 1711 trials. Check its current opening hours before making a dedicated journey.
Two ways to build this into a bigger day
Islandmagee works best as one meaningful stop within a wider County Antrim trip.
Carrickfergus Museum
The most relevant companion stop: the 1711 trials were heard at Carrickfergus, and the museum now holds interpretation, documents and interactive material about the case.
Check museum information →Crumlin Road Gaol
A much larger visitor attraction with documented prison history, restored interiors and a long-running collection of ghost reports.
Explore Crumlin Road Gaol →Exactly what a 3★ stop should be
Islandmagee is not a destination to build an entire trip around. But if you are already exploring County Antrim, the memorial gives you a real, physical connection to one of Ireland’s most unusual and troubling historical cases – and rewards anyone willing to follow the story beyond the plaque.