The site of a memorial to all the Irvine women tortured and killed accused of witchcraft has been revealed – after its creator tried to trace her artwork years later.

Artist Angie Taylor told the Times she was excited to find her memorial was still in use – after wondering what became of the plaque she completed for Irvine Development Corporation as a student.

It is estimated that about 2,500 women in Scotland were executed for witchcraft between the mid-16th and early18th centuries.

Irvine’s MSP previously raised the women’s plight in parliament after a campaign was launched for a memorial in memory of Margaret Barclay, the Irvine woman burned alive in 1618 for being a ‘witch’.

It can now be revealed that Angie took it upon herself to pay tribute to the woman tortured and killed around Irvine after reading about Margaret Barclay – but that she never actually explained what the plaque meant.

The talented artist told the Times she was excited to see the tribute was still in use after appealing on social media to find out where it was.

After a check, North Ayrshire Council later confirmed the plaque was in place at the Towerlands Community Centre.

Angie said: “I was working on another project on a similar subject and I started wondering where my sculpture was. I was a student at Edinburgh College of Art and the Irvine Development people got in touch about a few projects – it was like a competition to design artwork for Irvine. They didn’t specify what it was to be about, but I went to the library and researched the area.

“I found out about the witch trials, and there were actually quite a lot of witches killed in Irvine for the size of the town and I thought I’m going to make a sculpture about that.

“There’s 24 witches, and there’s three who supposedly sunk a ship - and there’s quite a bit of information on that.

“I found that poem that has the quote “Ever bush and never tree”, I decided to use that then the star sort of represents witchcraft and magic, the pentagram and of course the tree on top. I didn’t even expect it to be picked and I wanted it to be a memorial plaque instead of just a sculpture.

“They didn’t even ask me to provide any written explanation about the artwork so I suppose there’s a good chance if people have seen it they didn’t know what it was about.

“It’s really exciting to know that I’ve got a piece of art still on site which hopefully will survive me.”

MSP Ruth Maguire tabled a motion in Scottish Parliament asking for memorials to be created to mark the deaths of the thousands who were brutally tortured and killed under the Witchcraft Act 1563.

The motion also said that while the Scottish Government could not fund such memorials it “wishes all involved every success as they strive to raise national awareness of the thousands of people who were tortured and killed during the Scottish Witch Trials”.

The Memorial for Margaret Campaign was launched by Billy Kerr in the hopes of having memorial commissioned in memory of Margaret Barclay the Irvine woman burned alive in 1618 for being a ‘witch’.

For more information on the artist visit www.angietaylor.co.uk