Witch Wood

Witch Wood is a 1927 historical novel by the Scottish author John Buchan, set in the Scottish Borders during the 17th-century Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It follows the story of a young Church of Scotland minister, newly-arrived in a rural parish, who is undermined by devil-worshipping parishioners. A substantial part of the dialogue is in Scots.

Buchan wrote the novel while researching Montrose, his biography of James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, who appears as a minor character. Buchan's research had raised questions of seventeenth-century religious tolerance, which he wanted to explore. Drawing on elements of Margaret Murray’s witch-cult hypothesis, the book combines Buchan's wider interests in landscape, 17th century Calvinism, and the history of Scotland. It was the author's favourite novel and has come to be regarded as his masterpiece.