In the south of Scotland, near the city of Gervan, there is a deep cave in the coastal cliffs, which the locals willingly show to tourists, telling a blood-chilling story. According to legend, in the XIV-XV centuries this place was the abode of real cannibals.
In the Middle Ages, Scotland was one of the most remote corners of Europe. Numerous clans ruled politics here, and the locals were distinguished by their peculiar, sometimes very cruel disposition.
In the 14th century, Alexander "Sawney" Bean grew up in one of the families of Scottish commoners. The young man was not attracted by hard work and, having married, he decided to leave home. His life partner, whom people called a witch in a whisper, also did not seek to work with her hands. Together they settled in a cave by the sea.
The grotto, more than 200 meters long, was only accessible at low tide. The rest of the time the entrance was flooded. It was the perfect hideout for a night outlaw like Alexander Bean.
He lived with his wife in a cave for 25 years. The couple raised 14 children. Incest flourished in the clan; many children and grandchildren of Alexander Bin agreed in incest. None of them worked, but they willingly joined the family gang - robbed travelers and made daring raids on local residents. But the prey was still not enough to feed the huge family.
And at some point, people from the clan of Alexander "Souny" Bean began to eat human flesh. Now they were killing people for a specific purpose. They took the bodies of the victims to their ominous cave, where the remains were pickled and smoked. And some parts were simply thrown into the sea.
The disappearances of people in the whole area did not go unnoticed. Local residents started a real hunt for "ghouls", but they could not find the cave. When King James VI of Scotland found out about this, he equipped an entire expedition. 400 soldiers turned literally everything in the area literally upside down. In the cave of the cannibals, 48 people from the clan of Alexander Bina were arrested. The soldiers saw the place where about 1000 innocent people were killed and eaten. The cannibals were transported to Edinburgh, Leith and Glasgow. Without trial or investigation, the men were tortured and quartered, and the women were burned at the stake.
Promotional video:
Thus ended the existence of the Scottish clan of cannibals. But the memory of this family is still alive today. In 1977 the movie “The Hills Have Eyes” was released on the big screen, the plot elements of which were borrowed from the legendary medieval history.
Alexander "Sawney" Bean is a semi-legendary head of a 48-member clan who allegedly lived in Scotland in the 15th or 16th century, who was reportedly executed for mass murder and subsequent acts of cannibalism against more than 1,000 people who allegedly committed with his wife and other 46 clan members.
The story about him first appeared in the so-called "Newgate Directory" - a catalog of criminals in the famous Newgate prison in London. While many historians tend to believe that Souny Bean never existed or that his story was grossly exaggerated, his story has become part of local folklore and is now part of Edinburgh's tourism industry.
According to the Newgate Directory, Alexander Bean was born in East Lothian during the reign of King James I (mid-15th century), although other sources indicate a later date of birth. His father was ostensibly a digger and his mother sheared hedges, and Bean tried to follow in his parents' footsteps, but quickly realized that he had little desire to live by honest labor.
After 25 years of a secret life full of murders, the history of the cannibal family has come to an end. One night, Bean and his clan ambushed a married couple returning through the forest from a local fair on one horse. The man, however, proved to be a trained fighter, deftly fighting the clan members with his sword. His wife, however, was mortally wounded by a pistol shot by someone from the clan at the beginning of the conflict and fell to the ground. The man thereafter reportedly began to fight with even more ferocity, and at this time, before the cannibals could defeat him, a large group of people returning from the fair appeared on the forest road, whose appearance forced Bean and his clan to flee.
According to other reports, they killed a wife and a worker and attacked a man with a pistol; the sound of the shot drew the guards who were nearby, who chased the clan members to the caves, but having lost their trail and did not find traces of the boat (previously it was believed that the cannibals came from the sea), they ambushed and at low tide saw the entrance to the cave.
Soon after the existence of the family of cannibals became known, King James VI of Scotland (later James I, King of England) learned about their atrocities and decided to conduct a big hunt on them. He reportedly gathered a squad of 400 armed men and many hunting dogs. They soon found Bina Bennan Head's cave. The cave was littered with human remains, being the scene of many murders and acts of cannibalism.
The clan members were captured alive and taken in chains to Tolbooth Prison in Edinburgh, then transferred to Leith or Glasgow, where they were quickly executed without trial; the men had their genitals cut off, their arms and legs were torn off, and left to bleed to death; women and children were burned alive after watching the men of the clan die.
There is another legend about this clan of cannibals in the city of Gervan, located not far from the alleged place of events. It says that one of Bina's daughters left the clan before being caught and settled in Gervan, where she planted the so-called “hairy tree”. After the capture of her family, her daughter's identity was identified by angry local residents, who hung her on the branch of this tree. Today this tree still grows in this city on Dalrymple Street.
Whether Soney Bean's story is true or not, the legend of him has become part of British folklore. Historians question the veracity of this story, especially given the lack of reliable written sources, as British researcher Sean Thomas wrote in his 2005 article on Soney Bean.
In his opinion, about events of this magnitude (both mass disappearances and the fact of solving murders) committed over such a long time, in which, according to legend, even the king was involved, there should have been at least some messages in historical documents like diaries or pre-existing newspapers, but they have not yet been found.
Thomas also noted that there are a large number of inconsistencies in the various versions of the legend, primarily regarding which king participated in the alleged raid and when exactly the alleged cannibal family lived. It is James VI who sometimes acts as the king who arranged the hunt, but other versions of the legend say that Bean lived centuries earlier.
Thomas also questions the fact that such a large group of people could have been successfully hiding for such a long time, and that such mass disappearances did not lead to a full investigation earlier. Although the last moment is partially explained by the legend itself, which says that people could not get to the cave, and when they got there, they recognized it as unfit for life. In some versions of the legend, the inaccessibility of the cave at that time is separately noted.
There is also a version that the legend may be the result of English anti-Scottish political propaganda after the Jacobite uprisings at the beginning of the 18th century and, accordingly, appeared only then. However, Sean Thomas disagrees with this point of view, who believes that if this story were really anti-Scottish propaganda, it would not be published in a catalog of predominantly English criminals, where it would be less likely to receive special attention.
It is known, however, that in the course of epidemics in the area, there were isolated acts of cannibalism. Ayrshire is "famous" for its dark folklore, in which there are several more stories similar to the legend of the Bean clan, but recorded in earlier times. Perhaps this legend is really based on real events, which over time were overgrown with fantastic details and were greatly changed, as a result of which the number of alleged murderers in the legend exceeded a thousand.
By the way, here's another version
During the reign of King James I (1566-1625), a poor day laborer named Bane lived in a Scottish village with his only son, Jacob. A wild, rude, grumpy boy, whom nature, in exchange for mental abilities, has endowed with extraordinary strength, gave a lot of anxiety to his father and terrified the villagers.
Jacob Banya turned 16 when, in a fight with fellow villagers, he beat a man to death with a blow of his fist. This act overwhelmed the general patience, and the fierce teenager was chained. Jacob was sentenced to death, but on the day of the execution of the sentence, Banya managed to escape. The search was in vain, the criminal seemed to have sunk into the water.
Over time, people calmed down and were content with the fact that the killer never appeared in the vicinity of the village. For a long time Bane, like a beast, wandered in the forests, but hunger forced him to enter the service of a farmer in a remote village. The correct way of life was hated by Jacob, and soon he fled from there, and with a girl even more savage and cruel than himself. In parting, the young savages set fire to the farm and went to the rocky coast. During a strong low tide, the entrance to that very eerie cave opened. She became a reliable refuge for Banya and his companion, all that remained was to find food for themselves.
Hunting
The area here was deserted, even the birds seemed to avoid it. The new inhabitants of the cave satisfied their hunger with roots and forest fruits, until chance suggested a different, terrible way of life. The forester of a landowner once saw the savage Bané, chasing game in the master's forest, and tried to stop him. A fight ensued. Bane, armed with a club, beat the enemy to death, and to hide what had happened, he dragged the corpse into the cave. And here, apparently out of hunger, Banya's wife offered to eat the deceased.
They fried part of the body, and what was left was prepared for the future in the way they were used to: they seasoned with sea salt and hung up to smoke. This was later confirmed by the testimony of Bane at the trial in Edinburgh. And since then, the hermit hunt for people, like for game, began and continued with impunity for many years, until the scattered human remains found, thrown ashore, horrified the inhabitants of the surrounding villages and forced to organize a search for the killers.
Volunteers, familiar with the deserted coastline, combed the area far and wide. Some returned with nothing, disappointing the frightened fellow villagers, others did not return at all, obviously becoming victims of Banya and his growing family. The authorities ordered to send part of the city police to help residents.
Armed policemen, peasants and hunters wandered among the rocks all day long and were on duty at night, but the cautious cannibals sat in their cave and avoided meeting strangers. Unable to achieve results, the police returned to the city. The authorities came to the conclusion that there is no monster and cannot be, which means that the killer must be sought among the inhabitants of the nearest village.
Therefore, when a traveler mysteriously disappeared here, the blame was placed on the owner of the house where the missing person had spent the last night. The defendant could not prove his innocence, and therefore he was executed without delay - in order to intimidate everyone else. It was assumed that one of the main murderers was eliminated and that such a severity of the court would prevent all further atrocities. But the assumption turned out to be wrong. Soon a local fisherman fished out several human bones with the remains of meat with nets.
In Edinburgh, they examined the find and attributed the "eating of the remains" to fish. It was ordered to continue monitoring the coast, but the more actively the search was carried out, the more cautious the gang of cannibals became. Bane and his family never attacked horsemen, but only on foot, even if there were several of them. The corpses were carefully brought into the cave by water, which is why all the traces found indicated that the killers came from the sea and left the same way.
About 40 years passed in this way. A whole generation grew up in the cave, who did not know any other way of life except hunting for their own kind. Bané ruled over his descendants as the king of cannibals, and only chance helped to reveal the secret of the disappearance of a large number of people in these places.
Footprints fall off by the water
One night, a local farmer with his wife and worker walked out of the fair. Noticing the travelers, the cannibals hid and prepared for the attack. When the "game" came closer, the gang jumped out of the ambush. The young woman and the worker were immediately killed. The farmer, fortunately, had a pistol with him. Desperately resisting, the man fired a shot, which saved his life.
Riders patrolling the coast rushed up to the noise, and the villains fled. With difficulty it was possible to examine the fleeing, their tracks, as always, ended at the sea. But now it became clear: the murders were committed by a well-organized gang. But for what purpose?
Neither the farmer nor the riders who arrived in time saw the boats on which the killers could hide, so it was decided that they were hiding in a cave. A crowd of several hundred people, gathered from all nearby villages, surrounded the dwelling of the cannibals to prevent them from escaping.
And now - low tide.
The armed men went inside the cave, the rest waited outside. Having reached the deepest part of it, the daredevils saw something terrible: human flesh was hung on the walls and on the ceiling, which served the monstrous family's only food. Contemplating the dismembered corpses and piles of bones, even the harshest and most desperate hunters felt nausea rise in their throats. In addition, the smell in the cave was unbearable. An ordinary person, having spent even one night here, would probably lose his mind. But the wild creatures, who have lived like this almost all their lives, did not notice any inconvenience.
The gang members were tied up without the slightest resistance. Together with Yakov Banya, there were 48 of them! All the remains of human bodies found were buried. Piled up in a cave in a huge heap of money and jewelry, looted by the murderers, were taken to Edinburgh and, if possible, returned to the relatives of the victims.
Alive in legends
The lawsuit against Banje and his family aroused unheard-of interest among the people and bewilderment in legal circles: none of the legislative acts provided for punishment for such crimes. The judges of Edinburgh rendered their verdict together with their French colleagues - the case of the cannibals was sent to the professors of the Faculty of Law at the University of Paris.
The execution of Bané and his family in front of the gates of the Scottish capital was one of the worst in the history of Scottish legal proceedings. The criminals were brutally tortured, then quartered and burned at the stake.
The clan of cannibals was then talked about for a long time throughout England and throughout the educated world. And although later cases of cannibalism also occurred, as, for example, in the Duchy of Weimar in the 18th century, the case did not reach such a scale as in the Banya family.
Since then, the coast with caves has become a cursed place for the inhabitants, as if evil spirits lived there. It was rumored that, perhaps, someone from the family of cannibals survived and is now wandering in search of new victims, so they tried to bypass these surroundings.
Over time, the real outline of events was forgotten, but folk fantasy gave birth to hundreds of legends, altering the memories of ancestors, so for many years tales about "cannibals from the cave" were a favorite topic for evening conversations by the hearth, replacing modern "horror films" for the then peasant youth. As an epilogue, it can be added that the magazine "Niva" in 1886 first told about this terrible case to the inhabitants of Russia.
As for Scotland itself, although the Bane cave is known there, many doubt the veracity of this story, considering it just an idle fiction.