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The Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui - The Legend
Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am_Fear_Liath_M%C3%B2r
Am Fear Liath Mòr also known as the Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui or simply the Greyman) is the name of a presence or creature which is said to haunt the summit and passes of Ben Macdui, the highest peak of the Cairngorms and the second highest peak in Scotland (also the British Isles). It has been described as an extremely tall figure covered with short hair, or as an unseen presence that causes uneasy feelings in people who climb the mountain. Evidence of the existence of this creature is limited to various sightings and a few photographs of unusual footprints. It was traditionally seen as a supernatural being, but Am Fear Liath Mòr has been compared to the Yeti of the Himalaya and the Sasquatch or Bigfoot of North America. References to wild 'Greymen' in Scotland and similar creatures elsewhere in Europe, sometimes called Wudewas or 'Wood Men', date back to the 13th century, and are believed by some to represent relict hominids. In 1925, the noted climber John Norman Collie recounted a terrifying experience he had endured while alone near the summit of Ben MacDhui some 35 years before. "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." Collie was unable to make out the source of the noises because of mist, and continued "... [as] 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." Other climbers have also reported similar experiences, many describing uncontrollable feelings of fear and panic, some actually seeing a huge grey figure behind them, and others only hearing sounds or even succumbing to inexplicable feelings of terror while in the area. In the Matt Lamy book 100 Strangest Unexplained Mysteries, Lamy notes a sighting in the early 1990s in which three men caught sight of a bipedal creature with an eerie, inhuman face in a forest near Aberdeen. Several weeks later, whilst driving through the area at night, the creature appeared again and ran alongside their car even at speeds of 45 miles per hour, seemingly trying to enter the vehicle.  Similar panic responses have been reported in many North American Sasquatch encounters, and explanations involving infrasound or pheromones have been advanced. Cryptozoologist Karl Shuker has expressed belief that the creature is the guardian of an inter-dimensional portal in his 1997 book, The Unexplained. However, hallucinations and panic brought on by isolation and exhaustion, or an optical illusion similar to the Brocken spectre, are very plausible explanations for the Big Grey Man legend. A Brocken spectre, or 'glory', can occur in certain atmospheric conditions when the sun is at a particular angle. The subject's shadow can be cast onto low lying clouds around them, creating the illusion of a large shadowy humanoid figure. This is the most commonly advanced theory to explain the reported sightings.
Dismissing this as an aural hallucination, he continued, but so did the mysterious steps. Gradually he became more and more apprehensive, until he was seized with terror and fled blindly down the mountain for five miles until he reached Rothiemurchus Forest. Although he was unable to catch any real sight of it, Collie was left with a sinister impression of being stalked by a huge and menacing creature. He vowed never to return to Ben Macdhui alone, and remained convinced that there was "something very queer about the top of Ben MacDhui". Following his disclosure, he received a letter from Dr A.M.Kellas detailing his own strange experience on that mountain. Dr Kellas and his brother Henry were on the mountain close to the summit when they saw a 'giant figure' approaching them from the direction of the cairn. For a moment it disappeared from sight as it moved into a dip, but the men did not wait to see it reappear, and ran as fast as they could to get off the mountain. This chilling account, coupled with the unquestionable reliability of professor Collie's story, attracted great media attention. Moreover, other mountaineers began to confess that they too had experienced similar sensations of uncontrollable fear and panic with no rational reason while on Ben MacDhui 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. 
In a possibly related event the author of "The Thirty Nine Steps", John Buchan was walking in 1910 through a wood of pine trees on the Alps in Bavaria with a local forester. Suddenly both men were overcome at the same instant by a feeling of panic. Neither man spoke but they ran together down to the valley below where they collapsed from exertion. One story related to the author of 'The Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui', a man called Richard Frere. He told of a friend of his who decided to spend a night camping on the top of the mountain in 1940. In his tent near the cairn he began to suffer a feeling of morbidity and a sense of unreality but finally fell asleep. He woke up with moonlight shining through a gap into his tent and suddenly realized that he could see something brownish between himself and the moon. Horrified, he froze, and waited for the thing to move away. When it did, he looked out into the brilliant moonlight and saw a large brown creature 'swaggering' away down the mountain side. He said the creature had 'an air of insolent strength' about it. Incredibly, he estimated the height of the thing to be twenty feet, and described it as having an erect posture, broad shoulders and a tapering waist. Wendy Wood, author of 'The Secret of Spey' approached the pass of Lairig Ghru in winter whereupon she heard a voice. She described the voice as being of 'gigantic resonance' and reminiscent of Gaelic. After a brief and brave scouting out of the local area to see if she could find the person she had heard speaking, she realized that she was indeed alone. When she hurried away, she could hear footsteps following her as if immediately behind. At first she thought the footfalls to be echoes of her own, but then noticed that they did not coincide or correspond to her own footsteps. In 1965, footprints were discovered measuring 14 inches and with a massive stride that covered around 5 feet, just as Norman Collie had estimated prior to his panic-filled descent down the mountainside in 1891. In the early 1990's a group of three men walked along a forestry plantation track in the countryside close to Aberdeen when one saw ahead a 'dark human-shaped' figure run from the left of the track to the right about 200 yards ahead. He felt a 'sense of terror and foreboding'. His friends had not seen the creature but when they looked ahead they saw a face looking at them from between the branches, a face which was 'human... but not human'. One man threw a stone at it and it disappeared into the trees. A few weeks after this encounter the trio were driving towards Torphins near Aberdeen when their car was pursued by the very same type of creature. They reported this dark, tall being running alongside their car as they drove at close to 45 mph. Eventually it gave up the chase and simply stood in the middle of the road and peered after the car. A female friend of one of the men later told him that while she had been staying in a cottage in the countryside near there, she had seen a 'dark, hairy figure' standing just inside the tree line nearby watching the building on two occasions. After a while, it moved off into the undergrowth. The sightings of strange creatures are not the only things people have experienced while on the mountain or in the area. Other people have reported being in the area and suddenly overwhelmed by either a feeling of utter panic or a downward turning of their thoughts which made them incredibly depressed, or both. Some have reported being drawn as if hypnotically to the edge of dangerous ledges while others are believed to have been chased to their deaths, in their desperation to escape, over the edge of the cliff known as Lurcher's Crag. There have even been reports that ghostly music and laughter could be heard wafting across the 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, experienced mountaineer Tom Crowley was coming down alone from Braeraich in Glen Eanaich, close to Ben MacDhui, when 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. It may also be linked to other mountainous regions of the world. Another noteworthy possibility is that 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 demonstrated by Ben MacDhui's sinister Big Grey Man? 
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