The cave was bloody, covered with discarded bones: Scotland's Most Notorious Killers( True Story)

Scotland is famous for its mythical tales, including one of the most well-known legends - the Loch Ness monster. This is an appropriate story as the country boasts breathtaking landscapes, particularly in the northern region known as the Highlands. This area features the highest peaks in the United Kingdom, along with numerous freshwater lakes, surpassing the number found in England and Wales combined. However, what many may not realize is that Scotland is also associated with a horrific myth.

Alexander Bean, also known as "Sawney," was born in the 16th century in East Lothian. In his youth, he attempted to follow in his father's profession as a digger and trimmer of hedges, but he soon discovered that it was not a good fit for him. Feeling out of place in his hometown, he made the decision to depart. On his way, he met a woman named Black Agnes Douglas.

They quickly discovered that they both had the same ill tendency. In Agnes's case, she was accused of being a witch and decided to depart from the town.

They felt emboldened by their shared trait and sought revenge against the people who had made them feel like outcasts.

They committed terrible crimes, including robbery and even cannibalism, before they decided to run away together. The couple eventually found themselves seeking refuge in a coastal cave referred to as Bennane Head between Girvan and Ballantrae.

The cave proved to be an ideal hideaway for them due to its unique feature whereby during high tide, the entrance to the cave would become submerged in water, making it impossible for anyone to enter, thereby eliminating any suspicions that might have arisen. Due to this feature, the couple managed to live in the cave for an astonishing 25 years without being discovered. For a significant period of time, nothing was heard about the notorious couple until a large number of people started disappearing.

This became a significant concern because most of the roads connecting the nearby villages were isolated and deserted, making them vulnerable to the couple's attacks. Initially, there was no cause for alarm, but as the number of people who went missing continued to increase, people became more suspicious. Eventually, numerous coordinated searches were conducted in an attempt to uncover the culprits behind the disappearances.

During one of the searches, a cave was discovered. However, the individuals involved in the search were hesitant to accept that any human being could inhabit such a place. Despite the townspeople's extensive efforts to locate the culprit, their search proved to be fruitless. In their frustration, they resorted to lynching several innocent individuals. The local innkeepers were frequently targeted due to their last known contact with many of the missing individuals.

It wasn't until a married couple unwittingly stumbled upon the ruthless killers' territory that the truth behind the disappearances was revealed. The killers attacked the couple viciously, with the woman being dragged from her horse and torn apart, resulting in her death.

However, her husband proved to be a formidable adversary, charging into the fray with his sword and his horse, and trampling most of the attackers. Additionally, a group of revelers from a nearby fair joined the fight and outnumbered the Beans. As a result, the Beans were forced to flee. The surviving husband reported the incident to Glasgow's chief magistrate, who then notified King James the First, along with several other missing persons cases over the years.

King James the First, upon receiving word of the situation, dispatched a group of 400 troops and an army of bloodhounds to Ayrshire. Upon hearing of the operation, a team of dedicated local volunteers joined one of Scotland's largest manhunts.

Reliance on visual cues alone would have made the search impossible. However, with the assistance of the bloodhounds, they were able to detect the stench of decaying flesh emanating from a nearby cave. The soldiers approached the cave, brandishing their swords, unsure of what awaited them. What they encountered was something straight out of a nightmare, beyond the imagination of even the most fearless individuals.

The walls of the cave were bloody and covered in the discarded bones of countless victims' limbs and legs. They found jewelry in one section of the cave and piles of stripped bones in another. It's difficult to fathom that a single family could have committed such an atrocity. At the end of the cave, the family was trapped, and despite being outnumbered ten to one, they could only hold out for so long before surrendering. The king personally escorted every member of the family to Edinburgh.

( Sawney and Agnes "Black" Douglas had 14 children)

While carrying out his gruesome crimes, Sawney inadvertently found a solution to another problem. The bodies of his victims were taken back to the clan's hideout where they were mutilated and consumed. Any leftover body parts were stored in barrels, while the rest were discarded and sometimes found on nearby beaches, leading local residents to believe that wild animals were responsible for the attacks.

Initially, the Bean family only consisted of the couple, and they resorted to robbing passersby on lonely roads in order to survive. However, as their family grew, this method was no longer sufficient, and they turned to more heinous acts such as murder to conceal their crimes. Eventually, they even stooped to cannibalism, which Sawney Bean taught his entire family to engage in, as a means to sustain themselves.

It is difficult to imagine that the Beans did not engage in any other shocking behaviors in addition to cannibalism. Sawney Bean and his wife Agnes reportedly had a large family consisting of six daughters, eight sons, 18 grandsons, and 14 granddaughters, all of whom were the result of incestuous relationships between family members.