The Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui (Am Fear Liath Mor)

[From The Sentinel. August 2000.]

With a height of 4296 feet (1309 meters), Ben MacDhui is the tallest peak in the Cairngorms and the second highest peak anywhere in Scotland. It also has another claim to fame - that of a haunted mountain, because many mountaineers are certain that it harbors a malign humanoid entity, referred to locally as Am Fear Liath Mor, the Big Grey Man.

Ben MacDhui's sinister occupant first came to widespread notice when eminent climber Professor Norman Collie recalled to a stunned audience at the Annual General Meeting of the Cairngorm Club in Aberdeen (December 1925) that in 1891 he had been descending from this mountain's summit through heavy mist when suddenly: "I began to think I heard something else than merely the noise of my own footsteps. For every few steps I took I heard a crunch, and then another crunch as if someone was walking after me but taking steps three or four times the length of my own."

At first Collie tried to make light of such fancies, but the sound persisted, though its agent remained hidden in the mist. As he continued walking "... and the eerie crunch, crunch, sounded behind me, I was seized with terror and took to my heels, staggering blindly among the boulders for four or five miles". Vowing never to return there alone, he remained convinced that there was "something very odd about the summit of Ben MacDhui".

This chilling account, coupled with the unquestionable reliability of Collie himself, attracted great media attention. Moreover, other mountaineers began to report that they too had experienced similar sensations of uncontrollable yet inexplicable fear and panic while on Ben MacDhui (some had scarcely avoided plummeting over the edge of its cliffs in their terror and overwhelming compulsion to leave as quickly as possible) and had come away with the vivid impression that a malevolent, paranormal presence existed here, which sought to frighten away anyone venturing upon this lonely, desolate peak. There have even been sightings of a huge, man-like figure, somewhat like the legendary Bigfoot, strains of ghostly music and laughter have been heard drifting across its shadowy slopes and many accounts of heavy footsteps like those heard by Collie have been documented.

Reports are not wholly confined to Ben MacDhui either. One day during the early 1920s, while coming down alone from Braeraich in Glen Eanaich. Which is close to Ben MacDhui. Experienced mountaineer Tom Crowley heard footsteps behind him. When he looked around, he was horrified to see a huge grey mist shrouded figure with pointed ears, long legs and finger-like talons on its feet. He did not stay for a closer look.

Wales's answer to the Big Grey Man is the Grey King, also known as the Brenin Llwyd or Monarch of the Mist. Said to frequent Snowdon. Cader Idris Plynlimon and other lofty peaks, this awesome entity was greatly feared in times past as a child-stealer, and even the mountain guides were nervous of venturing into its domain. Explanations offered for the Big Grey Man are very diverse. They range from a Bigfoot-like man-beast, a mystical holy man, a geological holograph, and an optical illusion comparable to the famous Brocken spectre, to a marooned extraterrestrial, visitor-induced energy trace image, an electromagnetic phantom, and a hallucination engendered by oxygen deficiency.

There is also another noteworthy possibility. In view of the vast variety of unexplained phenomena reported from Ben MacDhui over the years, could this mountain be a "window" area -- an interface between different dimensions or alternate worlds? If so, there is a good chance that such a significant portal would have a guardian, to deter would-be intruders or trespassers. Is it just coincidence that this is the precise effect so successfully accomplished by Ben MacDhui's mysterious Big Grey Man?

None known what truly lies upon this forbidding mountain, but perhaps some day we will all find out.

WCSRO, 2006.