All over the world there are reports of large hairy human like figures lurking in the woods watching us. Some people believe these to be evolutionary throwbacks like big Neanderthal men who still exist and stay away from modern man. There have been sightings of such creatures in America, Canada, Himalayas, Russia and even right here in Scotland. We seem to be fascinated with were man came from and how we evolved and if some form of unevolved man still exists out there.

FEAR LIATH MOR”

Fear laith more Gaelic for big grey man that lurks near Ben Macdhui which is the highest mountain in the Cairngorms. It is said to be extremely tall over ten feet high and covered with short gray or brown hair and have long arms and legs and unlike other sightings of hairy humanoids is said to walk fully erect. The other unusual thing about fear liath mor” is its psychic ability. Not all reported encounters are actual sightings of the beast itself but in all reported encounters there is a reported overwhelming sensation of fear. Many mountaineers have reported a sudden sensation of fear and being watched which suddenly disappears when they descend from the mountain. It is also said to be able to make both man and animal have the overwhelming desire to commit suicide and there have been witness who have reported seeing animals suddenly behave strangely and then suddenly jump from the cliffs to their deaths.  This feeling of dread is usually accompanied by a strange mist. There have also been photographs taken of large strange footprints. There are records of supposed sightings dating right back to the seventeen hundreds. The most famous recorded encounter was that of Professor Norman collie when in 1925 during the annual general meeting of the cairngorm club he announced he had had an encounter in 1891. He said he had been descending from the mountains summit through a heavy mist when suddenly he began to hear noises in the loose rocks behind him coming down from the natural cairn on the high plateau. Then with every few steps he took he heard a crunch and then another crunch as if someone where walking after him but taking steps three or four times the length of his own. At first he dismissed it as aural hallucination and continued but so did the sound of the steps and gradually he became more apprehensive until he was suddenly gripped by fear and blindly fled as fast as he could down the mountain for five miles until he reached the Rothiemurchus forest. Although he said he did not catch any real sight of what was following him he was left with the sensation he had been stalked by a huge menacing creature and vowed never to travel up Ben Macdhui alone. Shortly after his announcement he received a letter a DR A.M Kellas who told him that while he and his brother Hendry where near the summit they saw a giant figure approach them from the direction of the cairn then it disappeared for a moment as it moved under a dip. They did not wait to see if it repapered and fled from the mountain.

THE ORFORD WILD MAN

The wild man of Orford was another mysterious hairy humanoid with a difference. Around the year 1167 off the cost of Orford in the UK. While out at sea some fishermen caught a man in their fishing nets. Described as having been naked and covered entirely with dark hair and having a shaggy beard with angry staring eyes. He was taken to Orford and kept in the castle dungeons. Stories about the wild man sometimes refer to him as a merman although there are no mentions of him having scales or a tail. The people of Orford tried to make the wild man talk by hanging him upside down by his feet and torturing him but he never said a word. They also say that her readily accepted food cooked or raw but when given raw food he would press it between his hands until he had extracted the juice form it before eating. He would sleep come sunset and stay in bed until the sun rose. They even tried taking him into church but apparently showed no sign of belief. Eventually the mysterious wild man escaped when they took him to the estuary of the river they placed three lines of nets out to prevent him from swimming away  but after having a short swim near the surface of the water the wild man dived down and escaped under the nets back out to sea never to be seen again.

Picture of the fishermen catching the wild man

THE ALMAS

The Almas has been spotted from the mountains of the north of Mongolia going south through to the Pamirs and through to the west to the Causcasus region. These creatures have also been sighted in Siberia and the north-east parts of the Russian republic. The word almas is Mongolian for wild man. These creatures are described as being around five foot in height and less hairy than other hairy humanoids they are described as being more human like than ape. Sightings go back hundreds of years. There are tales of them even having basic speech and even swapping food for small trinkets with locals. Drawings of the almas also appear in old Mongolian medical books alongside illustrations of medicinal plants and lizards and other local wildlife. Such as the one on pages 93-94 on the Myra Shackley which was a nineteenth century Tibetan book. The most famous sighting dates back to the fifteenth century when a Hans Sciltenberger was captured by the Turks and sent to the court of Tamerlane. They placed him in the retinue of Egidi a Mongolian prince. After his return to Europe in 1427 He wrote a book about his experiences. He described his strange encounters in the Tien Shan region. ‘’The inhabitants say that beyond the mountains is the beginning of a wasteland which lies at the edge of the earth. No one can survive there because the desert is populated by so many snakes and tigers. In the mountains themselves live wild people, who have nothing in common with other human beings. A Pelt covers the entire body of these creatures. Only the hands and face are free of hair. They run around the hills like animals and eat foliage and grass and whatever else they can find. The lord of the territory made Egidi a present of a couple of forest people, man and a woman. They had been caught in the wilderness, together with three untamed horses the size of asses and all sorts of other animals which are not found in German lands and which I cannot put a name to.

DRAWING OF AN ALMAS FROM A TIBETAN BOOK

THE YETI

In 1921 when Lieutenant Charles Howard-Bury led the Royal Geographical Societies Everest Reconnaissance Expedition. HE wrote a book about his expedition in which he talks about crossing the Lhakpa-la where at 21,000 feet he found footprints in the snow. He believed these were caused by a large loping wolf which in the soft snow caused double tracks like those of a bare footed man. He also said that his Sherpa guide immediately said that the tracks must be that of the wild man of the snow.

When a Mr Henry Newman interviewed the porters of the expedition hi mistranslated the word metoh as filthy or dirty and substituted it with the word abominable therefore creating the abominable snowman as we all know it today.

Before this in 1832 a B.H. Hodgson while trekking in the northern hills of Nepal one of his guides spotted a tall man like creature covered with long dark hair. Which he said seemed to flee in fear. Hodgson did not see the creature himself but concluded it was an orangutan. Also in 1889 Laurence Waddell reported his guide’s description of a large apelike figure that left large footprints.

In 2007 TV presenter Joshua Gates and his team reported finding a series of footprints in the Everest region of Nepal resembling descriptions of a yeti the footprints measured 33cm in length with five toes and measured 25cm across. They made casts of the prints for research. They were examined by Jeffrey Meldrum of Idaho State University who said they were too accurate to be fake and said they were very similar to a pair of Bigfoot prints that were found in America.

A yeti scalp kept at khumjung monastery

BIGFOOT

Bigfoot also known as Sasquatch is probably the best known hairy humanoid in the world. There have been many sightings of Bigfoot’s and Bigfoot families all across America and in Canada. Reports describe it as being between six to ten foot tall covered entirely with brown hair and anyone who has had an encounter also report a very strong unpleasant smell. Sightings start from the northwest pacific and spread throughout North America. In 1967 Fred Beck claimed that in July 1924 he and four other miners were attacked one night by several ape men throwing rocks at their cabin. They went outside and shot at what they described as mountain gorillas. The next morning large footprints were found outside the cabin.

In 1941 Jeannie Chapman and her children claimed they had to escape from their home when a large Sasquatch seven and a half feet tall approached their home in ruby creek.

In 1958 Jerry Crew a bulldozer operator took a giant cast of a footprint to a newspaper office. He and his crew had been seeing large footprints around were they were working in an isolated site at Bluff Creek California.  The crews were over seen by a Wilbur l Wallace brother of a Ray Wallace and after Ray’s death his children came forward with a pair of sixteen inch wooden feet which they claimed their father had used to fake the Bigfoot tracks.

In 1967 roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin created one of the biggest hoaxes in history when on October twentieth they claimed they had caught big foot on film. The film became known as the Patterson-grimlin film and was thought to be the best evidence of the existence of Bigfoot and fooled many experts until they finally came forward years later and admitted that Robert had dressed up in an ape costume for the making of the film. Many people still believe the footage to be real today.

More incredibly an Albert Ostman claims that in 1924 when he went on a hunting and camping trip. He was asleep in his sleeping bag when a male Sasquatch picked him up and carried him over the mountains to a valley surrounded by cliffs. He spent six days there held captive by a family of Sasquatch a father, mother son and daughter until he was able to escape

And more recently in 1988 a 12 year old boy spotted a Sasquatch while he was fishing for Cray fish in a creek in gray harbor Washington. He saw it looking at him from the bank opposite from him he described it as being six feet tall white with a pot belly bloodshot blue eyes with a wide nose buck teeth and a pink completion. He got on his bike out of there and said the Sasquatch limped down the river. He had left his belonging there and was too scared to go back to get them so he eventually persuaded his father to go with him. His father of course did not believe his story. When they got back to the creek they examined a footprint that was left and found that whatever left it was crippled.

Later in July 1995 the same son and father went camping at Wynoochee Reservoir near the same area. They traveled up near the waterfalls and were using a spotting scope to look for mountain sheep when the boy’s father said he could see two Sasquatch. There was one black and one white one chasing each other and wrestling on the ground. The then stopped and went over to sit on some rocks for a rest. The father noticed that the white one was limping like the one his son had described. Six – seven other people are said to have witnessed this sighting and it lasted twenty – thirty minutes before the disappeared.

These are only a hand full of reported sightings across the world. You have to ask yourself with so many sightings in so many places could they really exist. Or are there too many people just eager to get there fifteen minutes of fame. Some scientists believe people are misidentifying bears for these mythical creatures, and say that there habitat would not be suitable for such a creature that there would need to be many more to facilitate breeding to keep the species alive. But when you think they are finding new species all the time on our planet why couldn’t they exist and what else is lurking out there.