Dictionaries of the Scots Language
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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1941 (SND Vol. II).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

CASHIELAWS, CACHELAWS, n. An instrument of torture in use in Scotland in the 16th and 17th centuries. Arch. Also found in corrupt forms caspicaws, caspitaws, caspie laws (Jam.²), caspieclaws, caschiclaivis.Sc. 1785 H. Arnot Criminal Trials 368:
The boots, the caspieclaws, and the pilnie-winks, engines for torturing the legs, the arms, and the fingers.Sc. 1867 J. Mackenzie Hist. of Scot. lxv.:
The woman Balfour was kept for forty-eight hours in the cashielaws. This was an iron case in which the victim's legs were enclosed. Fire was then heaped about the instrument, till the imprisoned legs began to roast.Sc. 1937 Dean Inge in Evening Standard (3 Feb.) 7/1:
The old tortures — the Roman eculeus . . . the French brodequin . . . the Scottish cachelaws, rack and boot.Ork. 1883 R. M. Fergusson Rambling Sketches iv.:
One of the means of torture was the “caschiclaivis” — warm hose — an iron frame into which the leg of the victim was placed. It was then heated in a furnace.Ayr. 1824 A. Crawford Tales of my Grandmother (1825) I. 233:
Robin instantly set about preparing his instruments of torture . . . a caspie-claws and pilnie-winks for those possessed of dumb devils.