THE forgotten History of Witchcraft Trials in Clackmannanshire will be conjured up at a unique talk in Alloa later this month.

Karen Strang will share some of her insight and research into the persecutions, along with the changes to the land and mythology associated with it.

The topic is an ongoing project for the visual artist, based at Marcelle House, who would like to get people thinking about the untouched history.

She will speak about the county's past and how it informs her work at the theatre bar in Alloa Town Hall, during the event organised by Alloa Community Council.

Karen told the Advertiser: "I'm going to do a king of visual slide talk which will include images of places that I've visited on doing the research, some aspects of my artwork as well."

Subtitled Stripped, Dammed and Shafted, it relates to the way the land was industrialised in the 17th century at the peak of the witchcraft mania.

It also pays homage to the land reforms, damming land for Gartmorn Dam and the impact of mining in the area.

A range of works have been inspired by this area of interest, which sees Karen combine what she sees in a landscape and the information she has found.

She then puts herself forward, to empathise with the women who found themselves condemned, to arrive at a painting.

She said: "For this particular talk, I'm only focusing on what I unearth in Clackmannanshire.

"But, in more general terms I've been looking at the wider area, from the Forth to Perthshire, so Clackmannanshire encompasses the central part of that.

"So, from the landscapes I then try and do as much research as I can about what went on, particularly in about sort of the mid 1600s which is where the highlight of the witchcraft trials took place.

"And from then, I discovered much earlier settlements had what we would now call Druidic remains. We don't know who these early people were, but we know there is a lot of temple remains and standing stones.

"A lot of these are not identified or marked on any maps and what would have been considered sacred sites prior to Christianity, and these kind of overlap some of these places."

During the event she will also play music from composer Peter Drysdale, pieces under the title Last of the Meatae, which were early settlers.

The talk is open to all and will take place on Tuesday, February 27, starting at 8pm, entry is free.

The community council is also keen to hear from anyone else who would like to deliver similar events.