SAWNY BEAN

• The Legend of Sawny BeanIn recent times the stories of Hannibal Lector and the real life horrors of Jeffrey Dahmer have provided chilling accounts of cannibalism. However, Scotland can lay claim to one of the most gruesome horror tales ever recounted - the legend of Sawny Bean.

SAWNY BEAN

SAWNY BEAN

• SAWNY BEAN WAS A MAN WHO LIVED IN CAVES IN SCOTLAND. SAWNY BEAN USED TO BE A MAN WHO WOULD KILL PEOPLE AND EAT THEM

SAWNY BEANS CAVE

SAWNY BEAN

• The Beans came up with a simple solution to the problem of feeding their rapidly growing family. Rather than just robbing and murdering their victims, they took to eating them as well, pickling anything not immediately consumed for later use.

SAWNY BEAN• Alexander Bean (or, in some accounts, "Bean") was born in East

Lothian in the latter half of the 1300s, the son of an agricultural laborer. In about 1400 Bean was forced to flee his home after forming a relationship with a woman known as Black Agnes Douglas and widely believed to be a witch.

• Alexander and Agnes made their way across southern Scotland as outlaws, eventually finding and settling in a cave at Bennan Head, on what is now the South Ayrshire coast near Ballistar. The entrance to the cave was cut off by the sea at high tide, and this is said to have helped them evade discovery for 25 years.

• To begin with, they made a living by robbing and murdering passing travelers, storing their victims' more easily traceable valuables, and using the cash they raised this way to provide life's essentials. But this lifestyle became more difficult to sustain unnoticed as the Bean family grew. Alexander and Agnes are said to have produced 8 sons and 6 daughters, who in turn are said to have incestuously produced 18 grandsons and 14 granddaughters.

SAWNY BEAN

SAWNY BEAN

• One of the most famous legends to emerge from South-West Scotland is that of the Scottish cannibal murderer, Sawney Bean. The story has been spread around the world, accepted as an horrific historical incident. But does the story stand up to scrutiny? And, if not, what reason would there be for its invention?

SAWNY BEAN• The account which follows is from the Newgate Calendar. The original volumes

of that work were reprinted and re-issued repeatedly between c.1740 and c.1842. But, unrestrained by any copyright laws, writers and publishers continued to release plagiarised and pirated versions and to borrow from its texts for many years during and after that period. The Calendar detailed the lives, misdeeds and trials of all kinds of criminals. Strange as it may seem in our era, the often violent stories between its covers were commonly considered to be instructive reading material for children - the terrible fates of highwaymen, footpads and murderers were believed to offer moral lessons about the wages of sin.  

• Sawny Bean and his homicidal clan were said to have lived during the reign of King James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) in the 16th Century. The available evidence suggests that they murdered and cannibalised about 1,000 people in a time-span of 25 years.

• Bean was an outcast who took to robbery in an uninhabited region of Galloway; he mercilessly killed all his early victims. Having formed a bond with a woman of equally vicious temperament, they made their home in a cave (now called Bennane Head) situated north of Ballantrae and slaughtered travellers who passed through those parts. In the words of one chronicler: "being destitute of any means of obtaining food, the pair resolved to live on human flesh".

SAWNY BEAN• The town of Girvan, near the site of Bean's

antics, has a further legend about the cannibal's family. The legend states that one of Bean's many daughters escaped the mayhem of family life and settled in Girvan, where legend has it she planted The Hairy Tree. However, after the capture of her family, the daughter's identity was uncovered by angry locals, who hanged her from the bough of The Hairy Tree. The Hairy Tree was said to have been situated on Dalrymple Street in the town but we can't find it, can you help us?

HAIRY TREE• THIS IS A PUB IN GIRVAN NAMED

AFTER THE HAIRY TREE LEGEND.