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Disappearing Hikers

Cochise

Priest of the cult of the Dog with the Broken Paw
Joined
Jun 17, 2011
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I've just been told a story by a friend that, while he was walking a path near the West Kennett long barrow (not the path leading to the barrow itself, but within sight) he and his son saw two hikers coming towards them who disappeared before reaching them. They were relatively elderly people and therefore they didn't remark on their quite old fashioned gear until after they vanished. He took me to the path and I must admit there is no cover apart from a small watchman type hut which he says they checked.

The reason I raise it is that I think that somewhere on here there is someone who reported a similar encounter near an ancient monument, but I can't find it. I was trying to remember if it was in the Avebury area or somewhere else. I've tried searching on 'hiker' and 'barrow'.
 
Could it be anything to do with this:

...A couple of the oddest things which also have an element of timeslip about them. Once I saw a hiker walking past me on a path. He loked fairly modern, at least latter 20th century, but didn't glance my way or acknowledge me. Something felt not quite right. I realised even though he walked straight past me I hadn't heard footsteps, or breathing though the path was steep. I paused, then followed and looked, and of course, no sign of him. I know the place well, there was no where he could have gone or hidden aside from jumping down a rabbit hole...

From The Place with no History thread.
 
I thought we were going HERE

Edit: for the record, I think this dead link once pointed at an M.R. James short story, but I can't recall which.
 
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No, that's not it. The item I recalled from the past (not the story I've just been told) definitely involved a couple seen while someone was at or on the way to an ancient monument - I thought barrow, but could have been a white horse.

I'm slightly confused because someone else was asking about a white horse on the same day - the sun was out and everyone seemed to want to chat!.
 
In his book A walk in the woods about his hiking the Appalachian trail in America, Bill Bryson mentions a phantom hiker: All one day this hiker in old fashioned looking gear is just in view, always the same distance in front. The next day the same (apparently) hiker is just in view behind, never catching up or disappearing out of view completely. He never saw him again after that.
 
My parents claimed to have had a similar experience once on Chanctonbury Ring, a lcal site with all sorts of minor weirdness associated with it, which I think i've mentioned on here before.
 
Come on, lad. Spit it out. :lol:
 
It's not much to tell, really.

To the best of my knowledge, this would have been sometime before I was born, so I'm guessing early-to-mid '70s'. My parents were sat having lunch on the south side of the hill below the main wood ands they saw a guy, apparently another hiker, walking towards them across the slope off to one side. He disappeared briefly from view as the path went down a dip with a nearer contour of the slope obscuring it from them; they expected him to reappear... and he never did. Like I said, not much to tell.

The place is weird, though. I've seen dogs refuse to enter the wood, I've heard various rumours about occult stuff going on, and the atmosphere there is just... wrong. Not unlkike Clapham Woods just down the road, which has a much stronger reputation. But no disappearing hitchhikers that I've heard of.
 
I think that was the one I remember . Not West Kennet or Avebury. Oh well.
 
I recall a couple of similar stories concerning the Rollright Stones but these had a tome slip element : one of someone seeing an old fashioned gypsy wagon approaching them along the road next to the circle only for it to have vanished without passing the witness. The other was of someone parking nearby next to a 50s style car only for the car to have disappeared in thetime it took the witness to get out of their car.
Could it have been the Rollrights Cochise?
 
On my mum's advice, I would have loved to pick my dad's brain to see what else he remembered about the Chanctonbury Ring sighting. Sadly, though, he died at the weekend, so this will have to remain as another unanswered question.
 
I'm sorry to hear that. Please accept my condolences.
 
Sorry to hear that, Discordian.
 
Bigfoot73 said:
I recall a couple of similar stories concerning the Rollright Stones but these had a tome slip element : one of someone seeing an old fashioned gypsy wagon approaching them along the road next to the circle only for it to have vanished without passing the witness. The other was of someone parking nearby next to a 50s style car only for the car to have disappeared in thetime it took the witness to get out of their car.
Could it have been the Rollrights Cochise?

Pretty sure it wasn't. I've been there myself and hence I'd have remembered the story better. That is, the original story posted somewhere on here where someone saw an out-of-time couple, not the story my friend related.

He doesn't do mysterious, so there is no chance that he had previously read it on here. He also lives near to West Kennett and Salisbury Plain and is an outdoors type, so he is used to the terrain and atmosphere.
 
The reason I raise it is that I think that somewhere on here there is someone who reported a similar encounter near an ancient monument, but I can't find it. I was trying to remember if it was in the Avebury area or somewhere else. I've tried searching on 'hiker' and 'barrow'.

That rings a bell. Was it perhaps a thread on the Chanctonbury Ring?

I'd also mention that as I saw whenever we have disappearing figure stories that we, humans, are basically predisposed towards identifying shapes that could be human figures and features, not only because their presence and/or absence could bring about a life-or-death situation, but also because social norms dictate that our behaviour when conscious of being observed is markedly different from that when we think we are alone.

Our minds err on the side of over-caution and often throw up false positives because it is better to be wrong and confused than dead.

I personally have had several experiences of thinking a person is in view only to find a trick of the light or a momentarily humanoid shape that changes.
 
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