XPost: soc.culture.welsh, soc.culture.cornish, soc.culture.irish
XPost: soc.culture.scottish
From: micheil@shaw.ca
On Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:52:55 GMT, "Chess One"
wrote:
>
>"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.
I think that's a little unfair as all your posts have been about YOUR
opinions of Scotland amd its culture, most of which have been shot
down by various members of SCS. And by the way, it's "Am Fear Liath
Mōr" and that isn't my opinion; it's the conventional spelling.
>
>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, Š Suzanne Martin
>2005 ]
>
>http://www.wildwolfwomen.com/story/old-ones.htm
>
>Phil Innes
>
I'm really not into Celtic Twilight meanderings and I doubt that you
will find many people today who honestly believe that the Big Grey Man
exists. I do apologise for expressing my opinion regarding this
matter; it's just that as a Highlander I do find it a little
irritating to be told repeatedly by you, an American who claims to
have lived in the Highlands briefly, that I know nothing about my
homeland; its culture and its language. We have a phrase - "an t-ārdan
a'choigreach" - the arrogance of the foreigner; something that we and
our cousins in Ireland have experienced far too frequently.
The Highlander
Tilgibh smucaid air do lāmhan,
togaibh a' bhratach dhubh agus
toisichibh a' geārradh na sgōrnanan!
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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