High upon the lonely summit of Ben Macdui, the mist and fog swirl around you. You can’t help but feel it’s filled with eyes, watching and stalking you. Heavy footsteps approach as your anxiety rises. Suddenly, you are seized by paralyzing dread, and then you see it: Am Fear Liath Mor, the Big Grey Man.
Encounters with the Greyman of Ben Macdui have been documented for centuries and remain consistent in their accounts. It is described as a ten-foot-tall humanoid, thin with broad shoulders, and covered in short grey hair. Though similar in appearance to Bigfoot or the Yeti, the Greyman is not entirely corporeal and is often likened to a spirit.
Visible manifestations of the Greyman are rare. Typically, witnesses report being stalked across the mountain by heavy footprints crunching in the gravel just beyond sight. These visits are marked by intense feelings of anxiety, paranoia, and fear. Occasionally, the Greyman will reveal itself, stepping menacingly out of the fog, as in this 1943 account by naturalist Alexander Tewinon:
In October 1943 I spent a ten day leave climbing alone in the Cairngorms… One afternoon, just as I reached the summit cairn of Ben MacDhui, mist swirled across the Lairig Ghru and enveloped the mountain. The atmosphere became dark and oppressive, a fierce, bitter wind whisked among the boulders, and… an odd sound echoed through the mist – a loud footstep, it seemed. Then another, and another… A strange shape loomed up, receded, came charging at me! Without hesitation I whipped out the revolver and fired three times at the figure. When it still came on I turned and hared down the path, reaching Glen Derry in a time that I have never bettered. You may ask was it really the Fear Laith Mhor? Frankly, I think it was.”
In 1925, J. Norman Collie reported a more typical account of the phenomenon. Collie was a member of the Royal Geographic Society, a professor, and an avid hiker, which lends some credibility to his story.
“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. 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. 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 Macdui and I will not go back there again.”
No photographs or other physical evidence support the Greyman’s existence, leaving skeptics quick to cast doubt. The most common explanation is an atmospheric phenomenon called a Brocken Specter or mountain specter. Under certain conditions, when the sun is at the proper angle, one’s shadow can be projected onto the clouds or mist in front of them, resulting in a giant, shadowy human figure looming in the distance.
Some believers assign a more paranormal designation, categorizing the Greyman as a fae or spirit. Indeed, Scottland’s folklore is filled with such entities. Others are convinced that it is some kind of cryptid or feral human. One thing that everyone agrees on is that whatever it is, it is not friendly.
So, if you feel inclined to follow the cairns to the misty craigs of Ben Macdui, consider yourself warned.
Jason Roberts is a Seattle-based author noted for his acclaimed western horror series The Dead Wind Trilogy as well as other works of cosmic horror infused with historical fiction. His web-based series, Dark Distractions, examines paranormal mysteries, unexplained phenomena, and all things strange.
