During the 15th, 16th and 17th century, as many as thirty people went missing around the area. Shadowy figures have been reported wandering through the trees in both human and animal form, and strange noises are often heard from the forest after nightfall.
On another date (1997, news paper report!) two men say that they were in the forest when they heard a loud flapping sound. They thought nothing of it at first but as they got continued walking they started to hear other strange sounds like a lady moaning in pain...Their horror began when they came to a place where the trees were smeared thickly with blood...As they fled in terror one man looked behind him and seen four human shaped figures in the forest behind him (standing motionless, not pursuing), where previously there had been no one there."
Four figures. The figures seemed brown and ragged or tattered and just watch from the treeline until the men had left.
-x-
In 2005, when I was 13 and in my third year of my secondary school, I took part in an outdoor team-building scheme called the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. For anyone outside of the British Isles, it's when you go on an "expedition" hill-walking and mountaineering in groups of about 6 for two nights and three days. It's normally organised by schools and churches, and also involves charity work and skill-building exercises during the year.
When you're 13, you're eligible for the Bronze level- and in my area this involved a reasonably straightforward walk with the 'exciting' but daunting prospect of camping for one night right in the middle of a local forest- Ballyboley Forest, in Larne, Northern Ireland (part of the UK).
Now I wasn't the fittest of kids but it was with a group of friends and it turned out to be good fun. The first few days involved nothing more exciting than navigating fields and hills, and it went without incident.
On the last night, we ended up camping right in the middle of Ballyboley Forest with all of the other groups. It was at the very foot of a fire break (a long, thin stretch of ground with no trees- which means you can see for quite some distance with nothing hindering your vision). There were no teachers or leaders at this campsite, so naturally all hell broke loose.
At about 8:15pm, as the light was beginning to dim, someone in an other group began to ramble on about seeing people at the other end of the firebreak moving about between the trees. In case it was another group who had gotten lost, a few of us marched up the firebreak to check it out. It was about a five minute walk, and there was nothing but more trees and shrubbery- not a road or a natural footpath in sight. It wasn't taken very seriously, until about an hour later.
We were all gathered round a gas stove having hot chocolate, when someone else noticed some kind of movement down at the far end of the fire break. This time, the figures that had been previously sighted were holding some kind of torches- but this is where it got a bit stranger.
Rather than modern torches or Mag lites, the figures seemed to be holding what were either branches that had been set on fire, or some kind of oil-lanterns that you held out in front of you. We counted 4 of these figures (this is important to remember). Someone later that night (who lived on a farm and would therefore know a bit about this) claimed that, after the figures vanished, they could hear sounds like an abattoir in the distance- echoing cries and squeals of animals.
Needless to say, after the figures vanished, our young imaginations ran wild and we began to assume the worst was about to happen. In a small and very religious country like Northern Ireland, you are brought up hearing of stories of the witchcraft and devil-worship that supposedly takes place in secluded forests- and it took a lot of discussion and freaking out before we decided that someone should ring the nearest teacher with our group's emergency mobile phone.
But eventually, more rational voices began to pipe up and assure the more frantic campers that it was probably just other groups in the forest (the fire-break stretched very far back- about a kilo meter), and we decided the best course of action was for everyone to go to their tents, keep torches handy and stick together.
The next morning, save for a few rumours of figures and lights being seen running around the tents, we laughed it off and carried on with the expedition. Eventually, it was rarely spoken about and it became one of those stories that, as you get older, you find yourself struggling to remember if it was real or a dream.
When you're 13, you're eligible for the Bronze level- and in my area this involved a reasonably straightforward walk with the 'exciting' but daunting prospect of camping for one night right in the middle of a local forest- Ballyboley Forest, in Larne, Northern Ireland (part of the UK).
Now I wasn't the fittest of kids but it was with a group of friends and it turned out to be good fun. The first few days involved nothing more exciting than navigating fields and hills, and it went without incident.
On the last night, we ended up camping right in the middle of Ballyboley Forest with all of the other groups. It was at the very foot of a fire break (a long, thin stretch of ground with no trees- which means you can see for quite some distance with nothing hindering your vision). There were no teachers or leaders at this campsite, so naturally all hell broke loose.
At about 8:15pm, as the light was beginning to dim, someone in an other group began to ramble on about seeing people at the other end of the firebreak moving about between the trees. In case it was another group who had gotten lost, a few of us marched up the firebreak to check it out. It was about a five minute walk, and there was nothing but more trees and shrubbery- not a road or a natural footpath in sight. It wasn't taken very seriously, until about an hour later.
We were all gathered round a gas stove having hot chocolate, when someone else noticed some kind of movement down at the far end of the fire break. This time, the figures that had been previously sighted were holding some kind of torches- but this is where it got a bit stranger.
Rather than modern torches or Mag lites, the figures seemed to be holding what were either branches that had been set on fire, or some kind of oil-lanterns that you held out in front of you. We counted 4 of these figures (this is important to remember). Someone later that night (who lived on a farm and would therefore know a bit about this) claimed that, after the figures vanished, they could hear sounds like an abattoir in the distance- echoing cries and squeals of animals.
Needless to say, after the figures vanished, our young imaginations ran wild and we began to assume the worst was about to happen. In a small and very religious country like Northern Ireland, you are brought up hearing of stories of the witchcraft and devil-worship that supposedly takes place in secluded forests- and it took a lot of discussion and freaking out before we decided that someone should ring the nearest teacher with our group's emergency mobile phone.
But eventually, more rational voices began to pipe up and assure the more frantic campers that it was probably just other groups in the forest (the fire-break stretched very far back- about a kilo meter), and we decided the best course of action was for everyone to go to their tents, keep torches handy and stick together.
The next morning, save for a few rumours of figures and lights being seen running around the tents, we laughed it off and carried on with the expedition. Eventually, it was rarely spoken about and it became one of those stories that, as you get older, you find yourself struggling to remember if it was real or a dream.
-x-
Two people claim they saw an ape-like creature in a small wooded area of Northern Ireland. Caroline Breen, a 63-year-old woman working as a pet sitter in Glenwherry, told Cryptozoology News she and her husband were walking some of the local dogs in Ballyboley Forest when the alleged beast showed up.
“We approached a small patch of dead trees one day when we caught sight of something crouched behind the bushes,” she explains. “We thought at first it was a human, but as it raised its head in the air, we saw it. The dogs got agitated,” she added about the summer of 1998 encounter.
Breen says her husband walked towards the creature and that it began growling at him.
“I told him to step back. He thought it was a chimpanzee or something. He got closer, to within 15 feet or so, and it was then that it reared up on its legs. It was very tall and it was carrying a big stick.”
The purported creature then reportedly “smashed the stick against a tree” and took off at a high speed. Breen says the ordeal lasted about 4 minutes.
“It ran so fast through those trees, like it had done so a thousand times,” said the woman.
The creature was described as having a chimpanzee-like face but with a “broader nose” and it was covered in “dark brown black fur”. Breen recalls the animal being approximately 8 feet tall.
“I don’t know if this was a Bigfoot but my husband didn’t think we got these types of things in Ireland,” she said.
Reports of Bigfoot sightings in the United Kingdom are rare but have been growing in frequency since the advent of the Internet.
Last year, a Bristol man claimed to have witnessed an ape-like creature as it ate a piece of food with what he believes were improvised eating utensils. The report came one week after another man reported to have seen a similar animal in the county of Suffolk.
In 1982, 48-year-old retired cook Deborah Hatswell said she and a classmate had decided to skip high school when they came across a Bigfoot creature in Salford.
And Breen, who had previously laughed at other stories from the woods her mother had told her in the past, says she now knows there is a “weird ape” roaming the woods of the British Isles.
“We approached a small patch of dead trees one day when we caught sight of something crouched behind the bushes,” she explains. “We thought at first it was a human, but as it raised its head in the air, we saw it. The dogs got agitated,” she added about the summer of 1998 encounter.
Breen says her husband walked towards the creature and that it began growling at him.
“I told him to step back. He thought it was a chimpanzee or something. He got closer, to within 15 feet or so, and it was then that it reared up on its legs. It was very tall and it was carrying a big stick.”
The purported creature then reportedly “smashed the stick against a tree” and took off at a high speed. Breen says the ordeal lasted about 4 minutes.
“It ran so fast through those trees, like it had done so a thousand times,” said the woman.
The creature was described as having a chimpanzee-like face but with a “broader nose” and it was covered in “dark brown black fur”. Breen recalls the animal being approximately 8 feet tall.
“I don’t know if this was a Bigfoot but my husband didn’t think we got these types of things in Ireland,” she said.
Reports of Bigfoot sightings in the United Kingdom are rare but have been growing in frequency since the advent of the Internet.
Last year, a Bristol man claimed to have witnessed an ape-like creature as it ate a piece of food with what he believes were improvised eating utensils. The report came one week after another man reported to have seen a similar animal in the county of Suffolk.
In 1982, 48-year-old retired cook Deborah Hatswell said she and a classmate had decided to skip high school when they came across a Bigfoot creature in Salford.
And Breen, who had previously laughed at other stories from the woods her mother had told her in the past, says she now knows there is a “weird ape” roaming the woods of the British Isles.
Comments
Post a Comment
To contact me please use debbiehatswell@gmail.com