Haunted place · Scotland, United Kingdom

Ben Macdui

Updated November 202612 sources How to visit

Cairngorms summit tied to the Big Grey Man, a legend traced to Norman Collie's 1925 speech, printed 1926: crunching steps in mist, a tall figure at the cairn.

The story

Ben Macdui is a mountain of the Cairngorms on the Aberdeenshire and Moray border, 1,309 m, the second-highest summit in the United Kingdom. Before accurate maps, it was sometimes thought to be higher than Ben Nevis; surveys of both peaks in 1846-47 settled the matter in favor of Ben Nevis, according to Wikipedia. The Cairngorm Club of Aberdeen put up a direction indicator on the summit in 1925, per the same source (we did not read the club’s 1926 account of its inauguration in full).

The legend

The tale starts with the mountaineer Norman Collie. The club journal says that more than thirty-five years before 1925 (secondary sites say 1891, which would be only thirty-four years, and one says 1890) he was alone in mist on the summit and heard crunching sounds, “a big crunch, and then another crunch,” as if someone were following with strides three or four times as long as his own. He told the club he would “not go back there again by myself.” About twelve years later, in his telling, he related this to a Dr Kellas, who said that one June midnight he had seen a figure at least ten feet tall moving around the summit cairn, while his brother, sitting close by, saw nothing.

Still later, Colin Phillip repeated Kellas’s story to an old man from the edge of Rothiemurchus, who answered, in the club’s record, that this would have been “the Ferla Mhor (the Big Grey Man).” That is the earliest appearance of the name that we found. It comes from a remark about Kellas’s story reported by a third party, although the club’s proceedings say Collie described his own experience as an encounter with the Ferla Mhor. A review of Affleck Gray’s 1970 book says Gray shows some evidence of earlier folklore about a figure on the mountain; we did not read the book. The Journal also mentions other local stories, such as a bloody-handed spectre in Glen More and a ghost of Bynack shot with an arrow.

The reported phenomena are a presence, giant footsteps and panic. No one is identified as the Big Grey Man.

The public legend dates from 1925. Collie spoke as honorary president at the Cairngorm Club’s annual dinner, which followed the annual meeting on Saturday, 28 November (the date on the printed page; the scan’s text layer misreads it). The club’s Journal, volume XI, no. 64 (1926), printed the talk as “The Ben Macdhui Giant Spectre,” together with the proceedings. The Journal itself says press coverage brought “a flood of interviews and correspondence” for weeks. Some readers saw a case of nerves; others pointed to “mysterious music” explained as wind in the ravines.

Press and Journal of 30 November 1925 and the Daily Mail of 11 January 1926 are cited by secondary sites; we did not verify either, though a chronology on the Wormwoodiana blog also places replies in the Aberdeen Press and Journal in December 1925 and January 1926. A blog seen only in a search result says Collie had told his story to a New Zealand newspaper over two decades before 1925. That blog and the New Zealand newspaper archive refused our requests, so this is unverified. So 1925 is the first printed account of this story that we could confirm, not proof that nothing came before. Our search of US newspapers for 1770 to 1963 found nothing under “Ben Macdui,” “Ben Macdhui” or “Big Grey Man.”

A 2024 BBC article quotes the climber Chris Townsend saying Collie had a reputation as a practical joker. A blog by Icy Sedgwick says some skeptics claim he admitted making up the story because he had no notice that he would have to speak, citing Gray’s book. We found no primary source for such an admission, so we treat it as unproven either way. Later retellings, such as Alexander Tewnion’s 1958 magazine account of a 1943 encounter (known to us from Skeptoid’s and Wikipedia’s excerpts), Borthwick in 1939 and Affleck Gray’s 1970 book, were not read in the original. In short: one dated speech of 1925, recalling events over thirty-five years earlier, then spread by the press.

What remains today

There is nothing to see of the legend itself. The summit has the direction indicator mentioned above and, per Wikipedia, the remains of a small shelter built by the 1847 surveyors. The mountain lies within the Mar Lodge Estate according to Wikipedia’s categories, but we did not confirm ownership or status from a source we read.

Visiting

Ben Macdui is open hill country with no access restrictions that we found, although we did not read any official statement on this, so check current guidance with the land managers. It is a high mountain walk where mist is frequent. We give no route; this is serious mountain terrain, so go only with up-to-date maps, a forecast and real mountain experience. The legend can be followed from a desk: the Cairngorm Club has put its Journal articles online.

The ghosts

Spirit

Am Fear Liath Mòr (the Big Grey Man)

Collie described crunching steps following his own on the misty summit, and Kellas a very tall figure around the cairn at midnight. The Gaelic name appears in a remark by an old man reported by Colin Phillip. No identity is offered.

Footsteps
Apparitions

First reported: 1925 speech, printed 1926 (events said to date from over thirty-five years earlier). Reported by: Norman Collie, Dr Kellas, Colin Phillip (Cairngorm Club Journal, 1926)