Transcript SWANY BEANS CAVE

SAWNY BEAN
• The Legend of Sawny Bean
In 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.