First published in 1970 and then republished with a new Foreward in 1989, Affleck Gray’s The Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui: Myth or Monster is an exploration of the supposed entity that haunts Scotland’s second highest peak in the Cairngorms, a mountain range in the eastern Highlands of Scotland.
The late Affleck Gray is certainly qualified to discuss the subject. A mountaineer, a historian, an author, and a former forester and landscape consultant, Gray was born in the shadows of the mountain range and has wandered its crags and ridges starting when he was twelve years of age.
Starting his book with an encounter with the Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui by Professor Norman Collie in 1891, we are asked if the entity is a real creature, a ghost, or the result of the human mind overstressed from exertion, high altitude, and solitude interpreting natural phenomenon as a visit from some guardian of the Scottish highlands.
Examining report after report of supernatural encounters with the entity, sometimes seen, sometimes only heard, the reader is taken on a tour of the lonely peaks and introduced to the typography and wildlife of the Cairngorm range. Odd natural phenomena such as optical illusions are explored and Gray leaves no stone unturned in his quest for answers, even exploring the theories of those who try to interpret the Big Grey Man as a member of fairie or even an extraterrestrial visitor.
In the end, Gray reveals his own thoughts that the encounters are merely misinterpretations of natural occurrences, but the experiences he relates from other climbers make one wonder if there may actually be something else roaming the slopes and peak of Ben MacDhui.
In spite of Gray’s more materialistic explanation, too many climbers, too many witnesses leave the reader wondering just how much Affleck Gray’s skepticism may be based more on his lack of an encounter with the Big Grey Man than the numerous eye witness reports. It’s left up to the reader to make his or her own decision.
