According to legend, Sawney Bean and Agnes "Black" Douglas raised a clan of cannibals in a remote Scottish cave. They killed and ate unlucky travellers on lonely roads. This went on for decades with more than a thousand perishing. Who invented this gruesome story? Why? And why has Sawney Bean become a kind of cult hero in Scotland itself?

Cat Byers is our guest today, a writer and historian based in Paris currently finishing a PhD on the Paris Morgue.

Edited and produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

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Cannibalism in Scotland: Legend of Sawney Bean 32:28 Share

After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal

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Cannibalism in Scotland: Legend of Sawney Bean