“The first records of the Sawney Bean we know came in the 18th Century and originated in England,” says Dr Gordon McKelvie, a lecturer in history at the University of Winchester who has written about the subject, external.
“I’m not saying there were never any cannibals in Scotland, but all these stories are written years after the alleged events happened and it feels almost safe, because ‘oh, this all happened years in the past’ not the here and now.
“The stories probably come from various local legends being repackaged and it was like fan fiction, where people added their own details as it went along.”
The most common version of the legend has Bean born and growing up in East Lothian, but deciding to shun an honest living and moving to South Ayrshire with a woman.
Using a well-hidden cave on the coast, Bean and his family – which in some accounts of the tale number dozens – murdered passing travellers using the highway between Girvan and Ballentrae, before eating them. It was something described luridly in old tales.
However one day a man was able to use a pistol and sword to fend off an attack, although not before his unfortunate wife met a hideous end at the clan’s hands.
The authorities were summoned, and King James himself led 400 men to hunt for the killers.
Upon being captured, the cannibals were taken to Leith and executed in a manner as horrible as they gave to their victims, by being dismembered or set on fire.