scotgrey

With a height of 4296 feet (1309 meters), Ben MacDhui is the loftiest peak in the Cairgorms and the second highest peak
anywhere in Scotland. It also has another claim to fame, that of a haunted mountain, because many mountaineers are
certain that it harbors a malign humanoid entity, referred to locally as Am Fear Liath Mor, the Big Grey Man. Ben Mac
Dhui's sinister occupant first came to widespread notice when eminent climber Professor Norman Collie recalled to
stunned audience at the Annual General Meeting of the Cairngorm Club in Aberdeen (December 1925) that in 1891 he
had been descending from this mountain's summit through heavy mist when suddenly: "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, and then another crunch as if someone was walking after me but taking steps three or four times the
length of my own."

At first Collie tried to make light of such fancies, but the sound persisted, through its agent remained hidden in the mist. As
he continued walking "...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". Vowing never to return there alone, he remained
convinced that there was "something very queer about the top of Ben MacDhui."

This chilling account, coupled with the unquestionable reliability of Collie himself, attracted great media attention.
Moreover, other mountaineers began to confess that they too had experienced similar sensations of uncontrollable yet
inexplicable fear and panic 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. There
have been sightings of a huge, man-like figure, strains of ghostly music and laughter have been heard wafting across its
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 1920's, while coming down alone from Braeraich in
Glen Eanaich, which i close to Ben MacDhui, experienced mountaineer Tom Crowley heard footsteps behind him. When
he looked around, he was horrified to see a huge gray mist-shrouded figure with pointed ears, long legs and fight-like
talons on its feet. He did not stay for a closer look.

Wale's answer to the Big Grey Man is the Grey King, also known as the Brenin Llwyd or Monarch of the Mist. Said to
frequent Snowdon, Cader Idris, Plynlimon, and other lofty peaks, this awesome entity was greatly feared in times past as a
child-stealer, and even the mountain guides were nervous of venturing into its domain. Explanations offered for the Big
Grey Man are very diverse. They range from a yeti like man beast, a mystical holy man, a geological holography, and an
optical illusion comparable to the famous Brocken specter, to a marooned extraterrestrial, a visitor induced energy trace
image, an electromagnetic phantom, and a hallucination engendered by oxygen deficiency. There is one other noteworthy
possibility. In view of the vast variety of unexplained phenomena reported from Ben MacDhui over the years, some believe
that this mountain could be a "window" area, an interface between difference dimensions or alternate worlds.