Ghostly goings on.

As I was out exploring the Scottish wilderness the other day with my fellow explorer, that's him up there, I saw for the first time an awesome spectacle.

We were well up the slopes of Beinn a'Bheirthir on our way to Sgorr Dhearg, in Glencoe, when we stopped to look at what Scotland has to offer regarding truly wild and fantastic scenery.


The clouds were resting in the glens after their long climb down the slopes of the high mountains creating a sense of brooding majestic magnificence. The feeling of being surrounded by the quiet power of nature was palpable and we both took many seconds to soak up this feeling, it was like we were recharging our spiritual batteries to keep us going until the next encounter with the natural world. Fortunately this was not long in coming.

Mick let out a shout! Thinking that some disaster had befallen him I turned to see what the noise was about, on the cusp of leaping to his aid, or to admonish him for tripping up over his walking poles, I saw him pointing furiously down into Gleann a'Choalais and shouting about some ghostly spectre! Not being able to see what he was pointing at I thought that he may be suffering from low altitude illness or tiredness brought on by early starts and steep slopes. Then I too saw what he had seen.

At first it was the coloured halo, a rainbow round my head with the pot of gold on one of my ears! Then slowly the ghostly figure materialised on the cloud that had come up to have a look at who was on his mountain,


my first mountain ghost! A Brocken Spectre! Caused by the sun behind our backs casting our shadows onto that curious cloud! We both watched in awe at this natural phenomena, seeing the large ghost follow us up to the peak, watching us, maybe looking after us. It was a rare moment in mountain days when all the conditions that are needed to do this meet and include us in their games.

We continued on to Sgorr Dhonuill followed by our own mountain guide. Then as we descended into the glen, he left us and slipped safely into the cloud that had become denser, his job done.

It was a fantastic experience and reminded me of all the similar experiences John Muir would have had on his many adventures in the wilderness. Two friends went back to the campsite happier for this rare privilege.