THE BIG GREY MAN
A rediscovered account from 1926 reveals an early encounter with the malevolent monster said to haunt the Cairngorms
He took to his heels and ran blindly among the boulders
In a recent ‘Ghostwatch’ column ( FT394:18-21), Alan Murdie discussed, among other subjects, mountain climbers’ sensing a presence at “high and desolate altitudes”, with mountaineer Ralph Izzard’s comment that “nine times out of 10 this ‘presence’ is felt to be malevolent rather than benevolent” ( The Innocents on Everest, 1954).
A well-known example of such a malevolent presence specific to one mountain is the Am Fear Liath Mòr (Big Grey Man) of Ben Macdhui, the highest peak in the Cairngorms and Scotland’s second highest peak overall (see FT256:25).
There have been numerous purported encounters with the Big Grey Man, although few have seen it. Those who claim to have done so describe a very tall figure covered with short hair, in one case reported as having olive toned skin with long arms and broad shoulders. More commonly, though, the Grey Man is experienced as an unseen presence that induces feelings of unease and sometimes terror. Nearly all accounts report the sound of footsteps crunching on gravel.
The first recorded sighting of this entity occurred in 1891, but was not made public until 1926. J Norman Collie (18591942) was a professor of organic chemistry at University College London between 1896 and 1913 and head of department from 1913 to 1928, a pioneer of X-ray photography and an experienced mountaineer who had climbed all over the world, including a tragic expedition to Nanga Parbat in the Himalayas in 1895. His 1891 experience on Ben Macdhui was reported in the Daily Mail, 11 Jan 1926:
“Professor Collie, who has done much exploration and climbing in the Himalayas, Caucasus, Alps, and the Canadian Rockies and has had many adventures while mountaineering, confessed to the members of the Cairngorm Club, that he had experienced the most intense fear of his lifetime while climbing Ben Macdhui alone 35 years ago. He was returning from the cairn upon the summit in a mist, when he began to think he heard something else besides the noise of his own footsteps. He heard a big crunch, and then another crunch, as if someone was walking after him.
“He listened and heard it again, but could see nothing in the mist. As he walked on and the eerie “crunch, crunch” sounded behind him, he was seized with the most tremendous terror. Why, he did not know, for he did not mind being along on the hills, but the uncanny something which he sensed, caused fear to seize him. He took to his heels, and ran staggering blindly among the boulders for four or five miles. He had since learned that another climber once saw a man who looked to be almost 10ft (3m) high wandering round the top of the mountain at midnight. A man who lived on the slope of the mountain, then told the stories, replied that ‘it would have been the big grey man they had seen’.” UCL Weekly Newsletter 9, 29 May 2020.