Ghosts and Legends of British and Irish Mountains
A ten-foot grey shape follows a respected scientist through the mist - and he tells no one for thirty-five years. Twenty-six witnesses swear to a magistrate that they watched a phantom army march across an impossible ridge. A card player glances down and sees cloven hooves beneath his opponent's coat.
The mountains and hills of Britain and Ireland have always kept their own company. Long before anyone climbed them for sport, they were where farmers, mountaineers, scientists, and ordinary villagers reported the things that had no explanation - grey figures in the mist, armies that left no tracks, hags who shaped the very landscape, and outlaws whose crimes were too dark for the earth to let them rest.
In Ghosts and Legends of Britain and Ireland's Mountains, you will climb from the Cairngorms to the Cuillin, from the Lake District's most impossible sighting to the ruined hilltop lodge where a card game in Dublin is still said to have hosted the Devil himself. This collection gathers genuine witnessed encounters, centuries-old published accounts, and the deep mythology of the peaks that shaped how four nations imagined the wild places above the treeline.
Drawing on scientific testimony, contemporary 18th-century publications, archaeological record, and the folklore of the Highlands, Snowdonia, the Yorkshire Dales, and the Hebrides, this book grounds every chapter in a real mountain, a real account, and - wherever the record allows - a real name.
Climb into the mist and discover:
The Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui: six real encounters across a century, from a professor's confession to a mountaineer's revolver.
The Phantom Army of Souther Fell: twenty-six sworn witnesses, a vanished army, and a mystery no one has ever solved.
The Devil's Card Game: the ruined Dublin lodge where a player realised, too late, who he was playing against.
MacRaing's Mountains: the outlaw ghost of Skye's Cuillin, and the crime the mountains have never forgiven.
Perfect for hillwalkers, history lovers, followers of British and Irish folklore, and anyone who has ever felt watched on a misty summit, this book is your guide to the ghosts and legends of our highest places.
Lace up your boots, and mind the mist. Something up there has been watching for a very long time.
