Scotland Alba a wonderful country that
holds a special place in my heart and
one portion of the British Isles that
has long seen more than its fair share
of horrifying history from the Romans
literally building a wall to keep the
Scottish clans from ruining their empire
to a particularly bloody and villainous
reign of several English monarchies
Scotland has stood witness to some of
the most intriguing and terrifying
instances of history and as encapsulated
by the likes of Robert Burns the
ploughman poet himself Scottish history
makes for some remarkable tale so let's
take a look at them shall we hello
horror fans what's going on and once
again welcome back to the scare show on
YouTube top 5 scary videos as per usual
of your horror hosts Jack Finch's today
we curiously take a look at the top five
scary stories from Scottish
history well the clip
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for the jokes amongst you of course that
scene was from 1986 Highlander because
well there can be only one and I'm not
in the business for rolling the clip of
another famous Scottish film because
well that one's pretty damn historically
inaccurate and we might as well lay out
a film that at least doesn't pretend
that is something it's not okay okay
that film is Braveheart and I'll admit
it I love that movie but hey I'm not
trying to piss off any Scot so let's
just move on kicking off at number five
the witches well and what's Europe as a
whole has had a long tragic line of
witch hunting throughout its long and
bloody history there is perhaps one
location in Scotland that exemplifies
that period more so than any other
Edinburgh Castle is a hive of activity a
beautiful structure that speaks of the
city's ancient roots in its mystical
origin but as you walk around its high
walls you may be a miss to know that
you're walking amongst the same ground
of a brutal and horrifying massacre that
stretched out over a century now the
witches well a cast iron fountain and
plaque honors the Scottish people who
were burned at the stake at Edinburgh
Castle between the 15th and 18th
centuries but it was the 16th century
and one King in particular where the
witches well saw more bloodshed than
anywhere else in Scotland King James the
sixth and first of Scotland and England
respectively was certainly an intriguing
figure throughout British history but it
was his unique brand of zealotry that
led to the deaths of thousands of
innocent women each of them without a
trial King James believed that
witchcraft was a form of Satanism and
that anyone who possessed the abilities
that he perceived as mystical bit
herbology or even dancing were in fact
possessed by the devil himself you see
King James was obsessed with the notion
of witchcraft and would write countless
literature about demonology but all of
this culminated in a period that ran
throughout the 17th and 18th centuries
at Edinburgh Castle as a result more
than 4,000 alleged witches nearly all of
them female were mercilessly put to
death in fact so many of them were
brutally murdered that the usual act of
burning at the stake was replaced with
routine hanging the last of which took
place
in 1728 during this horrifying satanic
panic pretty much anyone and everyone
could be unrightfully accused of
practicing black magic many of those
that were killed were keen herbalist
demonstrating
an ancient practice of medicine some of
them were mentally ill and wrongfully
deemed possessed and even rarer some of
those killed were merely on the wrong
end of someone else's malice murdered
over a squabble it was a brutal time not
only in Scottish history but the
entirety of the British Isles
and the witches well at Edinburgh Castle
stands as a monument a mortal reminder
of those vile deeds swinging in anima
for skara brae and to be honest i just
love saying that name skara brae skara
brae feels good under the tongue right
but the thing is for this entry on our
list we're going to be going back pretty
far in fact further back than any other
entry in scottish history and perhaps
even further back there any other
historical instance imaginable really
skara brae is a location far far older
than Stonehenge and far older than even
the Great Pyramids of Giza themselves
and it's tucked on a series of little
islands just off the coast of Scotland
Orkney Europe's most complete ancient
Neolithic village which whilst being
completely and utterly amazing in itself
may also be evidence of a far more
terrifying event than any of us could
have ever imagined you see there is a
reason why skara brae is often called
the Scottish Pompeii because although it
is remarkably preserved in a similar
fashion to the ancient Italian volcanic
city it also seems to be evidence of a
similar sort of disaster back in the
winter of 1850 a severe storm battered
Scotland causing immense damage to the
populace and over 200 deaths in the bay
of scale within the Orkney Isles the
storm stripped away a mass of earth and
when the storm cleared the nearby
villages were astounded to find the
outline of an ancient village weather or
the local Laird William watt of scale
conducted an excavation it wasn't until
1927 that the actual location was fully
excavated which would take another 60 or
so years to be completed originally it
was thought that the samples from around
500 BC but when radiocarbon samples were
fully tested it was revealed that skara
brae was built by at least 3000 180 BC
now as there is evidence of the
inhabitants of skara brae being taken by
surprise and fleeing the site in a hurry
such as remains of choice meets being
cooked on the fire left behind an
evidence of one woman fleeing in such
haste that her necklace broke as she
tried to squeeze through the narrow
doorway of her
home now while skara brae is still very
much a mystery the leading theory is
that the disaster in question was
another equally terrifying storm the
same kinda unearthed in 1850 if that's
the case I think we should be on the
lookout for a storm next up number three
the massacre of Glencoe and this one in
particular has been immortalized in
countless fictional works paying homage
to a terrifying and bloodthirsty event
in Scottish history but as is the case
with many things the truth of this
historical instance is full of far more
horror than in fiction now the Jacobite
uprising was a particularly complex and
brutal time in the history of the
British Isles but the worst of it
culminated in the Scottish Highlands
after losing the throne of England and
Scotland to William the third in March
of 1689 after landing in Ireland in an
attempt to regain the throne
James's second and seventh recruited a
small force of Highlanders to support
him in his campaign through Scotland now
it's important to note that many
Scottish clans have remained loyal to
King James the most profound of which
were the MacGregors the kept at
McDonald's and of course the Glencoe
MacDonald's and keep that name in mind
you see the thing is in August of 1691
the government had offered an indemnity
to all Scottish Chiefs as long as they
sworn oath of allegiance before New
Year's Day January the 1st 1682 in total
the Secretary of State and the Time Lord
stare off at a total of 12,000 British
pounds for swearing their allegiance to
King William which as you may imagine it
was quite the allure for many other
Jacobite leaning chieftains on top of
that letters of fire and sword was sent
out authorizing savage attacks on anyone
that would not comply to the order and
interestingly enough it worked pretty
much all of the Scottish Chiefs took the
oath however chief Alexander MacDonald
of Glencoe wasn't so sure and he had
postponed his submission of the oath
until December 31st 1691 you see at the
time he was hosting 120 men of the Earl
of Argyll and he wouldn't be able to
make it to the nearest magistrate of
Fort William until January the 6th
hearing that news King William ordered
swift punishment and MacDonald's in the
next moment over 100 of the Earl's
soldiers who had been quartered amicably
at Glencoe for more than a week
suddenly turned and attacked the
MacDonald's mercilessly 33 men two women
and two children were slaughtered by
their own guests who had been fed and
watered and entertained without a second
thought
and now we can sort of understand the
importance of hospitality can't we
hopefully coming in at number two the
black dinner and if that previous entry
sounds like something straight out of
Game of Thrones then that's because
george RR martin was pretty damn
inspired by british history particularly
the history of scotland and while this
one incidents in particular may well
seem pretty damn familiar but that also
doesn't make it any less terrifying
because like i said history is far more
horrifying than fiction because the
black dinner actually happened let's
take it back to the year of 1440 a
tumultuous time in scottish history
during the reign of king james ii who
was just 10 years old at the time
you see scotland was under the shaky yet
tentative power share and regent
rulership of two men Sir Alexander
Livingston and Sir William Kristen it
was the second period of Regency in a
short space of time after King James the
first was also briefly under the same
sort of stewardship you see one of those
previous Regent Stewart's was a man
named Archibald Douglas fourth Earl of
Douglas who was an all-around pretty
decent guy so much so that in this story
you could consider him to be Ned Stark
you see by the 15th century the
Douglases have become so powerful and
damn honorable that's some schemas such
as Livingston and Kristen saw their
family as a threat to the stability of
the nation in 1440 the grandson of
Archibald the sixteen-year-old William
Douglas 6th Earl of Douglas was invited
to Edinburgh Castle for a spectacular
feast alongside his younger brother
David the two of them were invited to
dine beside the 10-year old King James a
second and on November 24th 1440 the
small Douglas entourage had arrived
according to legend the banquet was held
in the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle
and the young king was completely
enamored by the charming and noble
Douglass's at the end of the feast
though after the hall went silent the
head of a black bull was brought out on
a platter and paraded in front of them
and their ancient Scottish custom the
head of a black ball was the symbol of
death and in rare customary moments this
formality priests aged the death of the
principal guests of a feast as the
legend goes king james ii was alleged to
have pleaded for the lives of his new
friends and for the Douglases to be
spared but it is said that his pleas
fell on deaf ears
even as King both William Douglas and
David
were beheaded in front of the then
ten-year-old king and finally coming in
at one spot
Sawney bean because talking of dinner we
certainly can't make this list without
featuring perhaps the most notoriously
grim instance of folklore in scottish
history the legend of Sawney bean now
also whilst its entries potentially the
most gruesome in the whole of scottish
history it's also important to know that
not all of the legend of Sawney bean can
be historically verified and the vast
majority of it is resigned to the
whisperings of folklore it's just food
for thought
sorry I'll stop talking about food now
you see little is known about the early
life of the notorious Sawney bean but it
is said that he may have been born in
East Lothian sometime in the late 16th
century when he reached adulthood he
became a ditch-digger but it seemed that
the life of honest labor was not for him
he left home with a and I quote a
vicious woman named Agnes Douglas who
apparently shared Sony's inclination for
ferocity after being accused of being a
witch on the way they robbed anyone that
crossed their path and this is where
their first taste for a far more
sinister crime began to establish itself
it is said that on the road Sawney and
Agnes cannibalized one of their victims
eventually the couple settled in a
coastal cave a place hidden just beneath
ban a head between Gervin and balance
ray where they lived undiscovered for
over 25 years as the legend goes the
cave that they made their home was 200
yards deep and the entrance was
completely blocked by water during high
tide and if that sounds like the perfect
place to establish an incestuous tribe
of cannibals then that's because it was
you see being an Agnes produced eight
sons six daughters 18 grandchildren and
14 granddaughters the majority of which
were the produce of incest between their
children and the height of their
terrifying reign the bean clan would
carefully lay ambushes on the nearby
road at night to rob and murder
individuals or small groups their bodies
stripped and pickling would be brought
back to the cave where they were eaten
leftovers were pickled in barrels or
dried like jerky one night however after
trying to ambush a newly married couple
the bean clan met their match and the
young groom fought them with a pistol
and sword in combat
eventually their secret cave was routed
and the bean clan was captured and
executed now the actual details of which
are down to wild speculation but one
thing is for certain
the
planet of soybean were said to have
murdered and eaten over 1,000 victims oh
and also one version of the legend
states at the tribe were never actually
captured and the nearby towns folk were
too terrified to go into the cave so
they just blew it up with dynamite and I
don't know about you but that sounds
like a sequel to me well on that
horrifying note that we have it at top 5
scary stories from Scottish history what
do you guys think do you agree disagree
how many more to answer this list there
let us know your thoughts down in the
comment section below as well as any
choice pics of your own before depart
from today's video that lets first take
a quick look at some of your more
creative comments from the past few days
first up honeymoon says you get that hot
spicy spawns let's keep top 5 on YouTube
I do not understand this reference but I
certainly appreciate it thank you and
finally Adriana's yak says do a top 5
from Ireland you demand keep up the good
work
you rock Jack and then there know
Adriana you rock honestly thank you very
very much
and while Scotland's right here so yeah
Ireland's pretty close nearby we might
as well pop over and then see what's
what yeah it's coming don't worry well
on that note I'm 40 that's all we've got
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yeah