XPost: soc.culture.welsh, soc.culture.cornish, soc.culture.irish   
   XPost: soc.culture.scottish   
   From: innes8@verizon.net   
      
   "The Highlander"  wrote in message   
   news:6v1hc3pqbt87blhnokocsbf69ib72cmep1@4ax.com...   
      
   >>But how come you avoid the Macdui reference 3 times now? Did you really   
   >>never hear of it? I thought it was a rite-of-passage for /real/   
   >>highlanders   
   >>;)   
   >   
   > I'm not avoiding it; I never got round to taking a stroll that way.   
      
   I see. Well, since your posts seem to be all about you and your opinions,   
   let us not correspond awhile, otherwise burying the hatchet will be in each   
   other's heads! I resort to the less controversial subject, where all people   
   can attend in completely rational manner - except of course on the Mountain   
   with An Fear Liah Mhor.   
      
   If there is some objective subject to discuss, I hope you will not mind me   
   joining in? You see, I really lived in the highlands, and there is enough   
   strangeness about that experience which even reasonable visitations to it do   
   not match.   
      
   Besides, since Wallace's time my family hasn't taken being denied their   
   existance with any more grace than he.   
      
   ---   
      
   If you ever make it to Macdui - and absolutely go with someone who knows the   
   scape, it can ice in Summer - never mind the Ghru which is very steep winter   
   ascent crawling with German hikers, and something of a wind-tunnel in Summer   
   and a long way to get up in one day to via Corrour Bothy, and keep away from   
   Lurchers Crag [for the legend, but also the wind can pick you off,   
   literally],   
      
   instead go from the North across the shoulder of Cairn Gorm itself, then you   
   can drop down a bit to another bothy [if you need it] before going back up.   
   About 5,500 feet of climbing total with another 1,000 to get out. On the way   
   back try the south-east side = there is a massive corey below. In winter the   
   top ice isn't necessarily very connected with that underneath! so keep off   
   it. Then going east and north you can come back over the Gorm near the ski   
   area [which is also shelter in bad weather]   
      
   ---   
      
   Now - the legend, Some say 'Grey Man of Macdui', some 'Old Man', and some   
   both & the older spelling of Macdhui.   
      
   There are a couple bits o' film you can Google from You Tube. a trailer and   
   a 10 minute segment The Big Grey Man Fearlas Mhor Ben MacDhui Cairngorms ::   
   These are concluded with both sensible and rational explanations. Finally   
   there is a Mytholog on the same subject which a recent and subjective   
   experience of a lone female climber.   
      
       Here is the earliest report I can find [the video above explains shadow   
   projection, nothing much explains other phenomena]   
      
   The first "official" report of a malevolent presence on the mountain was   
   given in 1925 by Norman Collie, an experienced climber with all the   
   credentials of a credible witness in the situation. As a professor of   
   chemistry at the University of London, this was not a man for whom hysteria   
   or fanciful imagination was usual.   
      
   Mr Collie claimed that whilst climbing Ben MacDhui unaccompanied in 1891, he   
   had become aware of another presence following him, although he knew there   
   were no other climbers around. He estimated from the sound that his pursuer   
   was taking steps three or four times the length of his own.   
      
   Although unable to catch any real sight of it, a sinister impression of   
   being stalked by a huge and menacing creature grew upon Norman, so he did   
   what any sensible person would do in the circumstances and ran like buggery   
   without stopping to look back, careering and tumbling down the slope until   
   he reached safety at the mountain foot. He never went on the mountain alone   
   again.   
      
   Since then there have been many further reports of climbers experiencing the   
   presence of a shadowy figure that filled them with terror and pursued them   
   as they fled. Some have reported being drawn as if hypnotically to the edge   
   of dangerous ledges and precipices while others are believed to have been   
   chased to their deaths, in their desperation to excape, over the edge of the   
   cliff known as Lurcher's Crag.   
      
   Actual sightings of the Big Grey Man have been rare, but "eye-witness"   
   descriptions of his appearance describe him as being around ten feet tall,   
   covered in hair, with very long arms and legs.   
      
   Huge footprints in the snow, not made by any human or known animal have been   
   found and photographed. In 1965, prints were discovered measuring 14 inches   
   and with a massive stride that covered around 5 feet, just as Norman Collie   
   had estimated prior to his panic-filled descent down the mountainside in   
   1891   
      
   ----   
      
   Mytholog [I note this text is copyright - so here's URL, © Suzanne Martin   
   2005 ]   
      
   http://www.wildwolfwomen.com/story/old-ones.htm   
      
   Phil Innes   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)