Bearing this in mind, I have a theory . Some aspects sound very similar to one of Lethbridge's "ghouls" - the sudden feeling of intense oppression and draining of one's energy. This site explores the possible links between Lethbridge and Nigel Kneale's "The Srone Tape":In the early 1990s 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.
Therefore, perhaps we can theorise that the Grey Man is a geological "recording" - and bearing in mind that the Highlands of Scotland are, geologically speaking, part of North America, perhaps there is some quality to that particular rock that produces these particular effects, demonstrable in very similar reports of a specific phenomenon from each side of the Atlantic.The idea of the physical environment acting as a recording medium for primal emotions was, of course, postulated by the distinguished Cambridge archaeologist T.C. Lethbridge, who explored its possibilities in Ghost and Ghoul, among other books. Lethbridge not only speculated about the phenomenon, he claimed to have experienced it first-hand. Lethbridge's theory was circulating during the early seventies - indeed, he died the year before The Stone Tape was written - and it's tempting to assume that Kneale assimilated it.
melf said:thats what puzzles me?
i think thats theres a legend/tale. thats says if you spend the night on the mountain youll either wake up mad or dead (sic)
isnt the "shadow" always "seen" as a one legged, one eyed shaped?
or am i thinking of nother scottish ben (mountain)?
i think theres something similar on mount snowdon?
except that you either wake up a poet or mad
Indeed, especially about the area around Aberdeen. I suppose it is just right for that kind of legend, as it's within reach of a highly-populated area (Aberdeenshire/east coast), yet seems as remote as some Alaskan forest. I grew up in rural Aberdeenshire pretty much around where the Grampian mountain range starts rising up, and the dense forests around there can be beautiful and extremely creepy. Not a few times have me and my friends experienced sudden panic, seen strange things deep in the woods (not any bigfeet (?) though!) or camped out and had the full scary-things-outside-the-tent experience.Egan said:Stu's account there about the BHM neer Aberdeen is interesting but given the physical distance, ( about 100 hundred miles,) and the sheer volume of odd Scottish myths i would hesitate to take anything from it for the Grey man story.
JerryB said:Actually, the reference to the 'man' is a bit misleading - often as not, what is experienced is an overwhelming sense of panic which causes the witness to flee. IIRC, actual sightings are very rare, if not themselves optical illusions. The main theme of that area is it's ability to instill panic in some of those who visit it.
Quite literally, a 'Pan-ic'. Pan being the original spirit of the wild places, forest and hill and instiller of sudden and overwhelming terror upon the lonely traveller.taras said:Not a few times have me and my friends experienced sudden panic, seen strange things deep in the woods (not any bigfeet (?) though!) or camped out and had the full scary-things-outside-the-tent experience.
Quixote said:You're thinking of Cader Idris, which is the second largest peak in Snowdonia.
Idris was a Giant and also an astronomer, it is said if you were to sleep overnight at the summit in Idris's Chair, a group of rocks, then by morning you would either be mad, a poet or a corpse.
I've camped over night on Cader Idris when I used to live in Bryncrug near Tywyn, all I came away with was 'flu. :cross eye
the one eyed- one legged reference might be something related to druidism, I aint that gen'd up on the subject but IIRC druids would foresee the future by standing on one leg and closing one eye
Mea Culpa - as I cut and pasted it directly from a page that was cataloguing Grey Man sightings, I didn't pay overmuch attention to the geography .Egan said:Stu's account there about the BHM neer Aberdeen is interesting but given the physical distance, ( about 100 hundred miles,) and the sheer volume of odd Scottish myths i would hesitate to take anything from it for the Grey man story.
molga parrot said:My only possible experience of Pan was on a peak overlooking the Culloden valley. I was with a BF (boyfriend, not bigfoot) and my toddler son, and when on top of the mountain I just got an overwhelming fear and the need to GET DOWN NOW! The fear was somehow for my son, I felt I had to get him off the peak to protect him. I've taken him up mountains before and since and been fine. At the time I knew next to nothing about the battle of Culloden, but have since read that others feel uncomfortable in that area.
melf said:im wrong then
http://heritage.scotsman.com/myths.cfm?id=40002005
The Big Grey Man of Ben MacDui
DIANE MACLEAN
PROFESSOR Norman Collie was a man of science, a professor of chemistry at the University College London. He was also an avid hill-walker and the last man anyone expected to tell absurd stories of strange footsteps on a remote hill. Yet that was the tale he told at the annual general meeting of the Cairngorm Club in Aberdeen on a dark, winter night in December 1925.
Collie had been alone on Ben MacDui, the highest peak in the Cairngorms and the second highest in Scotland, in 1891 when he was became convinced that he was being stalked.
"I began to think I heard something else than merely the noise of my own footsteps," he said. "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."
Overwhelmed by a sudden and fierce terror he ran four or five miles down the mountain as "the eerie crunch, crunch sounded behind".
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
This was the first official record of a strange presence on the hilltops high up in the Cairngorms, but it was not the last. A number of experienced climbers - rational men and women - have since given accounts of encountering Am Fear Liath Mor (The Big Grey Man) on the mountain.
Physical descriptions agree that the figure is hairy, huge - about 10 feet tall - with pointed ears, long legs and finger-like talons on his feet. So far so yeti, but descriptions of the Grey Man don’t stop there.
Rather bizarrely, a couple of witnesses claim the creature wears a top hat and whenever he appears, the sound of loud, crunching footsteps echo across the mountain. Some hear singing, others ghostly laughter.
The Grey Man is apparently more often felt than physically seen. Climbers experience uncontrolled terror, deep despair and huge negative energy. Not surprisingly many walkers feel an overwhelming desire to run away. Some have felt themselves pursued by echoing footsteps. Others are hypnotically drawn to the edge of cliffs.
The Cairngorms: home of Scotland's Yeti?
The Cairngorms: home of Scotland's Yeti?
There have been a number of explanations put forward to explain the Grey Man, from the reasonable to the surreal. Among the favourites is that the beast is some type of big-foot species long thought extinct. If this sounds too plausible, then you may choose to believe that he is some mystical holy man or even an extraterrestrial. More recently it has been suggested that Ben MacDhui is a "window" area – an interface between two worlds. Could the Grey Man be the portal guardian, placed among the high Scottish hills to deter intruders?
More sensible suggestions consider that the Grey Man is a geological holograph, an optical illusion or perhaps a hallucination brought about by oxygen starvation.
If you prefer your explanations totally down-to-earth then consider this. A similar phenomenon was witnessed in Germany’s Black Forest. People were terrified, claiming to witness misty grey men following them and hearing the echoing of footsteps. Scientific enquiries found a startling conclusion. The German Grey Man? These German climbers were being spooked by nothing more sinister than their own shadows.
This article: http://heritage.scotsman.com/myths.cfm?id=40002005
Last updated: 07-Mar-05
Arran mountaineer captures stunning photo of a Brocken Spectre
Published: 15:58 Monday 24 October 2016
Deputy team leader Ewan McKinnon captured the picture of the incredible spectre whilst looking from the ridge down towards Glen Sannox and posted it on the team’s Facebook page. A Brocken spectre, or mountain spectre, is the magnified shadow of the person observing, projected onto a bank of mist or fog by strong sunlight. The ‘spectre’ appears when the sun shines from behind the observer, who is looking down from a ridge or peak. The light then projects their shadow through the mist, often in a triangular shape due to perspective, and surrounds it in a halo of light known as a ‘glory’.
thats what puzzles me?
i think thats theres a legend/tale. thats says if you spend the night on the mountain youll either wake up mad or dead (sic)
isnt the "shadow" always "seen" as a one legged, one eyed shaped?
or am i thinking of nother scottish ben (mountain)?
i think theres something similar on mount snowdon?
except that you either wake up a poet or mad
How can anyone know. In your post you claim that the witnesses are always mad or dead?