The Big Grey Man of Ben Macdhui
A respected scientist told how, alone on a Scottish mountain in the mist, he heard huge footsteps following him, and fled in terror.
What was reported
In 1925, J. Norman Collie, a respected chemist and mountaineer, told a mountaineering club that years earlier, while descending Ben Macdhui, the second-highest mountain in Britain, alone in the mist, he had heard crunching footsteps behind him, one for every few of his own, as if something enormous was following. He ran for miles.
Other climbers then came forward with similar stories of footsteps, a looming grey figure and a sudden feeling of dread on the mountain. It became known in Gaelic as Am Fear Liath Mòr, the Big Grey Man.
Explanations offered
Many think the giant figure is a Brocken spectre: a climber's own shadow cast onto mist below, magnified and ringed with light, which seems to move when they do. The footsteps may be echoes or the creaking of snow, and fear can grow in isolation on a misty summit.
- When
- Reported since 1925
- Where
- Ben Macdhui, Cairngorms, Scotland
- Witnesses
- Mountaineers and hikers
- Status
- Mostly explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.