The Grey Man of Ben MacDhui
Investigation by Dr. Mality
Scotland! Home of William Wallace, caber tossing, Loch Ness, MacBeth, haggis, and, if Monty Python is to be believed, the world's worst tennis players! It's a majestic, forbidding land that lends itself to tales of dark deeds and the supernatural. It seems Nessie hogs most of Scotland's paranormal publicity, but hope for the old girl actually being in the loch is fading fast. Today, your humble explorer Dr. MacMality shall try to shine some light on another Scottish mystery...one that has gripped those who have encountered it with bone-freezing fear. Today, we hunt Am Fear Liath Mor...the Grey Man of Ben MacDhui!
Though they are just hills compared to the mighty Himalayas, the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland are not to be taken lightly. Greatest of these mountains is Ben MacDhui, which towers over 4200 feet above sea level. The terrain of Ben MacDhui is rugged and the weather can be foul and nasty. But the greatest challenge for those attempting to climb its summit seems to be the fearful being that makes its home there. Legends name it as Fear Liath Mor or Ferla Mohr...the Grey Man... and say that those who encounter it are overcome with numbing fear. Is it a ghost? Is it a Scottish relative of Bigfoot? Is it some bizarre natural effect that causes victims to imagine they are being pursued? Or is it the Devil himself?
The Grey Man first came to the attention of modern scientists in 1925. Professor Norman Collie, a respected mountaineer and man of unquestionable credentials, told members of the Cairngorm Mountaineering Club the details of a terrifying incident he was involved in 1891. This incident had so unnerved the Professor that he was reluctant to even think about it, much less bring it up to others.
Collie had been making a tough but eventful climb above the 4000 foot level when he entered an area covered by chilling mist. In the frosty silence, he trudged across the snow...but soon noticed crunching noises behind him, following his steps. He continued to walk and the sounds also continued. Collie noticed that they sounded like they were being made by someone with an enormous stride...several times the lengths of his own. Collie became more and more unnerved as the mist intensified and the crunching continued. Finally, he gave in to a tremendous feeling of panic and started running down the mountainside recklessly in an attempt to escape the unseen pursued.
Collie staggered all of four miles to the base of Ben MacDhui and only then did his panic pass. The stolid Professor, a lifelong rationalist, had never felt such a fear before...and he never would again.
This might be chalked up to just blind panic or a person's mind playing tricks on them. Except that Collie's report suddenly unleashed a torrent of anecdotes about strange encounters on Ben MacDhui. Dr. A. M. Kellas...another respected mountaineer...added fuel to the fire by telling of his own uncanny run-in with the Grey Man. Kellas and his brother Henry were obtaining samples of rock crystal on Ben MacDhui when they both spied a gigantic humanoid figure ambling towards them from the summit of the mountain. The only detail they were able to make out was that the being was twice the size of a normal man. Gripped by the same fear that struck Prof. Collie, Kellas and brother ran down the mountainside in terror.
More stories filtered down from the mountain. In 1945, Peter Densham and Richard Frere were looking for military airplanes that had crashed in the mountains when they ventured on to Ben MacDhui. Frere heard Densham, on the other side of a rock formation, having an excited conversation with "someone" else but the other "person" was speaking unintelligibly. Frere went to Densham and saw he was talking to no one. Almost as if in a trance, Frere also recalls talking to "something". Yet later both men found themselves elsewhere on the mountain...and neither could recall whom they had talked to or what the conversation was about!
Frere had heard an even more fantastic story from a friend of his who wished to remain anonymous. This man, another experienced mountaineer, had camped alone near the summit of Ben MacDhui in January. His experience had been unremarkable until late in the night, when he suddenly seemed to be overcome by a feeling of dread and impending doom. Not as acute as the panic felt by Prof. Collie and the others, it was nonetheless a very noticeable and disagreeable feeling. Despite this unease, the man managed to fall asleep in his tent. He awoke some time later and the feeling of dread had now become outright terror. He looked out of his tent and in the light of the full moon, saw an incredible apparition...a huge man-like figure covered in dark brown hair was "swaggering" down the mountainside. The creature seemed to be 20 feet high and had an "aura of insolent strength about it", according to Frere's friend. The man closed the tent in horror and waited for a doom which never came.
Many of the stories about the Grey Man were collected by Affleck Gray (appropriate name!) in his book "The Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui". Legends about the ill-omened mountain went back centuries, probably as long as humans had been in the area. The ancient Scots had called the creature "Am Fear Liath Mor" (sometimes Ferla Mohr) and considered it the embodiment of all evil.
The Grey Man appeared differently throughout the years. Its most common form was the huge hairy man described by Richard Frere's friend. Other sightings have made him out to be a more literally demonic creature. Lawyer George Duncan, climbing Ben MacDhui with a friend, saw "the conventional figure of the Devil himself!, dressed in a black robe, waving his arms, coming towards me." Like others, Duncan was overcome by panic and ran back down the mountains. On nearby Glen Eanaich mountain, veteran climber Tom Crowley saw a huge grey misty figure with pointed ears and clawed feet. In many cases, a figure was never seen, but witnesses were convinced they were being stalked by something large.
The sightings have continued into the 1990's. In 1994, 3 men from Aberdeen were pursued by the Grey Man as they drove through the area.One described his face as "human but not human". When the trio talked to police, the cops were convinced they had experienced something extraordinary, as they seemed almost out of their minds with fear.
What is the Grey Man of Ben MacDhui? Many say that there is no such thing...that climbers of Ben MacDhui are letting the high altitude, grim setting and old legends get the best of them, making them THINK they see something that isn't there. But in many cases, those who have seen and experienced the phenomena are respected scientists and mountain climbers...exactly the sort of people who should not be susceptible to suggestion.
One theory is that the mountain is home to Bigfoot-like hominids. In fact, in 1965, huge footprints were found in the snow. They measured 14 inches and seemed to show a creature with an enormous five foot stride between footsteps.
But the hominid theory has many doubters. While the Cairngorm Mountains are rugged, they are hardly the Himalayas...or even the Rockies. Could a breeding population of humanoids stay mostly hidden in such an area for centuries? Plus, many of the descriptions of the Grey Man don't gibe with other Bigfoot/hominid reports. Almost all the reports have a strong paranormal/supernatural aspect to them. In many cases, the Grey Man seems more like a demon or a ghost than a living, breathing creature.
Is there something about the mountain itself, or particular parts of it, that sets off the Grey Man phenomenon? There seem to be certain locations that have a "bad" feeling to them. The ancient Greeks believed very much that places had actual personalities...they called such areas "genius loci". Ben MacDhui would certainly seem to qualify as one of these. Almost every visitor to the mountain, whether or not they have actually seen the Grey Man, notices feelings of "wrongness", depression and full-bore terror. In one of the mountain's most peculiar characteristics, these "fear zones" have very sharply defined boundaries.
The novelist Joan Grant's experience on the mountain gives a very good account of this phenomenon. Overcome by sudden terror while climbing the mountain, she became convinced something was pursuing her. She ran down the mountainside and describes what happened next: "I had run about a half a mile when I burst through an invisible barrier behind which I knew I was safe. I knew I was safe now, though a second before I had been in mortal danger; knew it as certainly as though I were a torero who has jumped the barrier in front of a charging bull." Prof. Collie, Richard Frere and almost all other "victims" of Ben MacDhui described this same feeling of passing through a barrier and becoming "safe".
Another sensation experienced on Ben MacDhui is a strange, almost subliminal "ringing" or singing that is felt in the air. This tone has no source except the mountain itself. Richard Frere definitely experienced the "ringing" during his time on the mountain.
Is there something about Ben MacDhui...the very physical stone of it, or perhaps some sort of peculiar vapor there...that charges the area with intense and unpleasant vibrations? Is the Grey Man one symptom of the area's malign energy? It certainly seems like something peculiar is on the mountain...whether an evil form of energy, an actual spirit or demon or "just" a hairy hominid is yet to be determined.
There are all sorts of "bad places" across the world...ranging from the local "dead man's curve" on the highway to the Bermuda Triangle. Ben MacDhui seems to be one of the worst. Yet no one has actually died there. The terror may be "all in the mind", but it is NOT just imagination. Perhaps Ben MacDhui is a place where the walls between our mundane world and another dimension are thin. The mountain may be more "there" than "here".
Theories abound, but one thing for sure is that Ben MacDhui mountain is one of the most mysterious places in the world. Would you dare to scale its grim heights?
This is Dr. Mality, turning out the lights.