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. After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast. Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. All music from Epidemic Sounds. History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™ #HistoryHitPodcast #AfterDark