Sawney Bean - the man responsible for the mass cannibalism and became the tourist attraction of Scotland

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The story of Alexander "Souny" Bean is rather ambiguous and shrouded in too many legends, disagreements and omissions, so that some even doubt whether such a person really was. He and his group are credited with massacres, cannibalism against more than a thousand (!) People, and now, regardless of whether Sawney was in fact or not, he is one of the main attractions of the capital of Scotland.

History Alexandra "Soney" Bean (Alexander “Sawney” Bean) began in the middle of the 15th century, when one of the ordinary village guys suddenly realized that living like the others - to work and earn money to feed themselves through work - is not for him. Sawney found himself a lady of the heart, whom many in the area considered a witch, and with her retired away from the "honest people". Together with his wife, they settled in one of the caves in the area of modern southern Ayrshire, and quietly lived together.

For 25 years, the couple had 14 children and 22 grandchildren. Rumor has it that many of the babies were born as a result of incest, but no one could reliably say anything about the Bean family for the simple reason that everyone who met them was killed. Not wanting to grow vegetables and fruits or raise pets, the simplest way for the Bean family was to rob. To avoid witnesses, the family killed all their victims. At some point, the Bins realized that the loot was simply not enough to feed such a large family, and they began to bring the killed travelers to their cave, where they butchered and ate them, and the remaining meat was marinated for more hungry times.

Hungry times did not instruct, on the contrary - the entire Bean clan learned so well to surround and kill travelers (and they did it exclusively at night to avoid unnecessary witnesses) that there was too much meat, and the Beans began to throw individual parts of the victims into a nearby body of water. Of course, soon the inhabitants of the villages by the sea began to find suspicious remains and became seriously worried. The fact that a clan of 48 members of one family lives next to them in a cave, no one even suspected. During the day they did not appear in public, and at night they always acted harmoniously and silently. The family's cave was periodically flooded, so no one even explored it. Everyone who looked suspicious was accused of the murders, especially the owners of taverns, because they were often the last to see the victims still alive.

There are several versions of how the Bean family was discovered. According to one, the family attacked an elderly couple returning from the fair, but having already killed them, the Bins met with a group of 20 people who were also walking home from the fair, who saw what was happening. Another version says that the couple were not elderly, and the man was a trained fighter, and he fought with the Bins to the last, so that they did not even notice the right people. The third version says that one of the Bean victims had a gun with her, and this person managed to shoot before dying, thus giving a signal to the search teams that something bad was happening nearby.

Having learned that the cannibals who live somewhere nearby, and not newcomers, were attacking, the locals asked the king for help. He, having learned about the scale of the atrocities, organized a group of 400 people with hunting dogs. Together with local volunteers, they found the cave where Souny Bean and his entire extended family lived. Been could not cope with armed men and dogs, and their criminals were arrested and taken to Glasgow. There, the cannibals were dealt with very cruelly, without even giving the right to trial. The men had their genitals cut off, their arms and legs ripped off, and left to die of pain and blood loss. Women and children were forced to watch this execution, after which they were also killed - burned alive like witches on a huge fire. It is difficult to say if this story really was, but one way or another, it became an integral part of local folklore. Today you can book a tour where tourists will be taken to "significant places", this story has inspired various writers and filmmakers at different times, including the creators of Wes Craven's film "The Hills Have Eyes."

However, in Scotland, of course, there are not only bloodthirsty legends, but also other attractions that may interest any tourist, even the most fastidious. Read in our review " 10 fun facts about Scotland"about kilts, whiskey and … kangaroos.