Gallows Hill The execution site of those condemned as witches in the infamous witch trails in Salem, Massachusetts. Gallows Hill has been believed to be haunted ever since the trials in 1692-93. Nineteen men and women were hanged from the trees at Gallows Hill.

The site was long considered the meeting grounds for witches at annual Sabbats. It also was oracular: young persons who wished to know their future in marriage, and the identities of their future spouses, would go to Gallows Hill at night and listen for the answers to be revealed to them by the ghosts of the dead witches. Whenever an important event was about to happen, the neighborhood would be filled with the screechings and screamings of the haunting witches (see Ghosts, hauntings and witchcraft).

Gallows Hill is now a residential area.

See also : Salem Witches.

The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca written by Rosemary Ellen Guiley – Copyright © 1989, 1999, 2008 by Visionary Living, Inc.