Encounter Atlas
The Big Grey Man, Am Fear Liath Mòr in Gaelic, is said to haunt the summit plateau of Ben Macdui in the Cairngorms. Very few people claim to have seen it clearly. Most describe crunching footsteps in the fog, each step far longer than their own, followed by an overwhelming urge to run.
In 1925 the respected mountaineer and chemist J. Norman Collie told a Cairngorm Club dinner that he had fled the summit in 1891 after hearing giant footsteps behind him in the mist. Other climbers then came forward. Those who say they glimpsed it describe a figure over 10 feet tall, with long arms and broad shoulders.
Skeptics point to the Brocken spectre, where a climber's own shadow is thrown huge onto cloud, plus exhaustion and altitude. Hill walkers still trade Greyman stories in the bothies.
What witnesses report
- Heavy footsteps in fog, too far apart to be human
- A sudden feeling of dread or panic
- A huge grey shape in the mist
- Strange high singing notes
Famous cases
- 1891Collie's summit encounter
Ben Macdui, Cairngorms - 1925Collie tells the story publicly
Aberdeen, Scotland - 1945Peter Densham rescue-work encounter
Cairngorms, Scotland
Seen the Big Grey Man of Ben Macdui?
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