#ben macdhui

Myth or monster? The Big Grey Man of Ben Macdhui

723: Fear Liath Moor (Big Grey Man)

Am Fear Liath Mòr (pronounced [əm ˈfɛɾ ʎiə ˈmoːɾ]; Scottish Gaelic for “Big Grey Man”)

This Haunted Isle 9. Ben Macdhui, Cairngorms National Park | Google Map: 

Am Fear Liath Mòr - Also Known as the Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui

A curious phenomena usually described as a tall bipedal cryptid with short greyish hair that stalks climbers on the mountain, or simply as an eerie presence or unexplained feeling of dread.

Reports of the creature date back to the 1800s, one particular account being made by scientist and climber John Normal Collie, described in 1925 to the annual meeting of the Cairngorm Club:

“I was returning from the cairn on the summit in a mist when I began to think I heard something else than merely the noise of my own footsteps. For every few steps 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. I said to myself this is all nonsense. I listened and heard it again but could see nothing in the mist. As I walked on 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 nearly down to Rothiemurchus Forest. Whatever you make of it I do not know, but there is something very queer about the top of Ben Macdhui and I will not go back there myself I know.”

Evidence of the creature is limited to eyewitness accounts and a few photographed footprints, and is seen as being either a completely supernatural being, or a yeti/bigfoot type cryptid creature. Others believe the phenomena is simply a psychological illusion or hallucination brought on by the atmosphere change or exhaustion.