The enduring mystery of Scotland’s medieval cannibals

Cannibalism is one of the biggest taboos throughout history. The idea of eating one of your own species tends to fill people with disgust and horror.

Yet, cannibalism has happened for many reasons, including warfare and religious rituals. Reports of cannibalism are particularly prevalent in times of scarcity, such as Jamestown in Virginia in the 17th century, where remains of at least one person who may have been butchered have been identified.

Looking at stories about cannibalism during famines can tell us about how people retell stories over the centuries and what people thought their fellow man was capable of.

The most famous Scottish cannibal was Sawney Bean, purportedly a 16th-century man who, with his wife and children, killed travellers and ate them on the Ayrshire coast. It was only after one traveller escaped and raised the alarm that the king sent an army to arrest and execute them.

The only problem with this story is that Sawney Bean is first mentioned in English stories from the 18th century. Despite the purported thousands who were eaten over many decades, no source mentions an epidemic of missing persons. The word “Sawney” was a derogatory term for a Scot at that time and the whole tale may have been an invention.

The tale of Christie Cleek

Centuries earlier, Scottish chroniclers speak of another cannibal from Scotland – Christie Cleek from Perth. In 1339, Cleek was said to have set up traps to capture women and children, whom he subsequently killed and ate.

We know very little about Cleek. No reference to him survives from the years he was supposedly active. The name “Cleek” comes from an old Scots word for a metal hook which some stories suggest he used to drag his victims off of their horses.

The first reference we have to Cleek is decades later by the early 15th-century chronicler Andrew of Wyntoun. In this tale, Cleek was a low-born rustic who captured “children and women” and “ate them up”. We know of at least one chronicle that existed around the time of Cleek’s actions which is now lost and may well have recorded the original tale.

As time went on, further details were added to the legend. A few decades later, another chronicler, Walter Bower, spoke about how Cleek was joined in his actions by his “fierce woman”, though there is no hint if they were married. It was also said that Cleek and his partner were eventually arrested, given over to the local justices and “put to an ignominious death”.

Over the centuries, more details were added to the legend. Cleek gained an occupation: he was apparently a butcher rather than a low-level rustic. There is some logic to this since he may have had the relevant knives to carve up his victims. Yet, the earliest sources make no mention of an occupation, so any reference to him as a butcher is an educated guess. His elevation up the social scale is seen in a 19th-century tale which said he was a married and prosperous merchant from Dumfries and that for a century merely mentioning his name “was sufficient to silence noisy children”.

In the 19th century, Cleek’s story was sanitised. Wilson’s Book of Border Tales speaks about how Cleek had become the leader of a group of hunters who, during a famine, had either killed all of the nearby animals or had caused them to flee. They resorted to cannibalism after being driven to eat one woman who starved to death, and then another woman after drawing lots. After that they started to hunt humans. This led to their eventual arrest when a government force was sent to arrest them, which is reminiscent of the arrest of the legendary figure Sawney Bean. The tale is one of people driven to desperation.

Cleek’s tale has been embellished and changed over the centuries. This is pretty normal since stories are always tweaked or reinterpreted by new generations. But did he actually exist? In truth, it is impossible to say – there is very little evidence of the man or his actions that can be verified.

An interesting point about the story is that Cleek apparently started this during a time of famine in the later 1330s. The medieval chroniclers say that many Scots were driven to eating unnatural things like dogs and grass. Such tales, including those of cannibalism, were common across medieval Europe, though with all of them it is difficult to assess whether or not they were true. Times were no doubt hard and the possibility of people being driven to cannibalism is possible.

Tales of cannibalism have always grabbed people’s attention. The famine conditions in Scotland in the later 1330s no doubt trigger survival instincts that drove people to eat things they would normally find repulsive.

We can never know if Cleek was real or not. What we do know is that people believed hunger and famine could drive people to committing one of the ultimate taboos.