Paranormal record / 1710
Islandmagee, County Antrim. September 1710. In Knowehead House, something unseen threw stones and turf at the bed of an elderly widow named Ann Haltridge. The house was searched. Nothing was found. Then came a boy. Short black hair. An old black bonnet. A half-worn blanket trailing on the floor. He danced round the kitchen and vanished into the cow-shed. By the end of February 1711, Ann was dead. Her bedclothes had been laid out in the shape of a corpse. Then eighteen-year-old Mary Dunbar began to convulse, vomit pins and buttons, and name the women she saw tormenting her. What followed is generally called Ireland's last witch trial.
Islandmagee is a peninsula in south-east County Antrim. In 1710, Knowehead House in the townland of Kilcoan More was home to James Haltridge and his family. His elderly mother lived there too. Ann Haltridge, widow of the Presbyterian minister Rev. John Haltridge.