Duncan Williamson says he heard this story from the brother of a crofter, Neil McCallum, in Argyll, where they worked on dry-stane dykes together, when Duncan was young. Archie's Besom is the tale of a man who met a traveller that told him how make a besom. Archie sold his besom to Big Mags, a witch. Who taught some nasty witches a lesson they would never forget.