Grisly Galloway Legend

Isla had to read an interesting story to the rest of her class, and at the end of year show. We were talking about it, and I told her this tale, and she loved it! Kids love gore don't they! It is simplified for the sake of translating it into french! Tried it on Babelfish and it turned Sawney Bean into Sawney l'haricot!!

Sawney Bean
One of the most famous legends to come from South-West Scotland is that of the Scottish cannibal murderer, Sawney Bean.Alexander “Sawney” Bean lived in South West Scotland in the sixteenth century. He was a very evil man and he was married to a very evil woman called Black Agnes.They lived in a town, but decided to move to a remote cave on the coast. This cave became their home for twenty five years.

They used to attack travellers on the road, steal their possessions, murder them and then eat them.They did this for twenty five years without being caught. They had many children, and eventually there were 48 people in the Bean family. This meant they could attack larger groups of travellers.

There were many investigations about the disappearances of all the travellers, but nothing was ever found. Many times the travellers had been seen in taverns, and the owners of the taverns were often suspected of the murders and arrested.

One day, a young couple were travelling along the road when they were attacked by the Bean family. They quickly killed the wife, but the husband fought very hard, and the people from the town arrived, and the Bean family escaped.

They reported the crime to the authorities and a search party started to look for the Beans, with a team of Bloodhounds and King James. After a long period of searching, the bloodhounds smelt the cave and led the team to it.

As the search team went into the cave they saw arms and legs all over the cave, and all the possessions of the victims.

Sawney Bean and his family were captured and imprisoned in Edinburgh. The men had their arms and legs removed and bled to death, and the women were burnt at the stake.

No one knows if the story of Sawney Bean is true or if it is just a legend. It is possible, because cannibalism did exist in Scotland in the sixteenth century, but there is no evidence that Sawney Bean really did exist.