SHE was buried outside of consecrated ground beneath a huge stone slab to keep her from rising again seeking revenge on her persecutors.

But now, more than 300 years after her death, the face of Fife's own witch has been revealed again.

And despite the popular myth, there's a distinct lack of green-tinged skin or flaxen hair, and hardly a wart to speak of.

Lilias Adie was a woman who lived in the Parish of Torryburn and died in 1704 after she was arrested for witchcraft.

She confessed to having sex with the devil and perished in custody soon after, but instead of her body being burned her remains were buried on the beach and capped with a slab of sandstone to keep her from returning to life.

The Herald: Lilias Adie Lilias Adie

This meant her bones were preserved and her grave was raided in the 19th century, with her skull eventually ending up at the University of St Andrews.

And although the bone since vanished, a photograph from the time was enough to allow Lilias' face to be brought back to life through digital reconstruction at the University of Dundee's Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification.

The reconstruction was carried out at the behest of the BBC Radio Scotland’s Time Travels programme by Dr Christopher Rynn, who used state-of-the-art 3D virtual sculpture to recreate Lilias' face.

He said: “The process is step-by-step anatomical interpretation, sculpting musculature and estimating features individually from the skull, so it’s not as though you could look at a skull and instantly see the face. You have to reconstruct it to visualise it."

The Herald: Presenter Susan Morrison with Dr Chris Rynn as the face is reconstructed. An unwicked witch of the East has been uncovered by BBC Radio ScotlandÕs Time Travels programmeÉthrough a forensic reconstruction of her face.Presenter Susan Morrison with Dr Chris Rynn as the face is reconstructed. An unwicked witch of the East has been uncovered by BBC Radio ScotlandÕs Time Travels programmeÉthrough a forensic reconstruction of her face.

Fife archaeologist Douglas Speirs, who identified Lilias' grave, said that the accusation of witchcraft that led to Lilias' death was probably the result of a squabble with someone.

He said: "She would have found herself in front of some mad Presbyterian minister and tortured with beatings, sleep deprivation and all manner of cruelties.

"She would have confessed to just about anything in short order, and she died one month and a day after being apprehended, most likely because of suicide.

"To the people of the time., her suicide and her pact with the devil meant she could return from the grave as a 'revenant' - basically a zombie. So she was buried under something which would keep her in place."

Time Travel’s historian Said Louise Yeoman: “It’s sad to think her neighbours expected some terrifying monster when she was actually an innocent person who’d suffered terribly. The only thing that’s monstrous here is the miscarriage of justice.

“Lilias died a lonely unmourned death, but she was also a courageous woman and through this recreation we’ve been able to look at her face and see her as a person.

“And hopefully give her a more thoughtful place in Scottish history.”