Many years ago I camped with a friend up in beside Llyn Idwal, high up in Snowdonia. We walked in at dusk and set up the tent in the fading light, cooked some tea and sat chatting outside beside the lake. We'd walked in under a cloudless sky and the stars were beginning come out. It was all very spectacular against the dark towering slopes and faces of Glyder Far and the Devil's Kitchen against the starry sky.
After we'd eaten, it began to cloud over and the wind picked up. We retreated into the tent out of the wind and lit a candle lantern and carried on chatting. After a while, we noticed that the wind suddenly dropped to nothing. The gentle flapping of the flysheet gave way to complete silence. Then we heard a noise, quite distant, of something rushing quite fast. It was coming from across the lake and as we listened it got louder and the rushing noise became quite intense. Suddenly there was a great impact as it hit the tent - the flame of candle flickered and went out - and we heard the the rushing noise fade into the distance. It all went completely silent again.
Bryn Hall
Bryn Hall was haunted by the ghost of a headless horseman. The haunting is said to have ceased after one of the servants received a message from the horseman pertaining to the location of a buried body.
The body was that of an illegitimate child belonging to the Lord of the hall.
maybe Ian was encountering the headless horseman????
OR
the ghost of Rhitta, a fearsome giant who created a cape for himself out of the beards of his enemies. His corpse is covered in huge stones at the summit of the mountain
Last october whilst bikepacking in the forest of Dean I heard really strange noises whilst riding through noises that seem to be stalking me and I couldn't place them, I had little knowledge of the wild life in that forest so I couldn't work out what it was to dismiss it, it sound like there was a a wild boer on the lose!
Not scared I simpily pitch up on top of a small mound the noise still sounded like it's was following me and came close to the site whilst I was cooking being October it was dark before 7pm so I got the torch out a had a pan round the noise moved on.
I retired to my tent and half through the night I heard movement, heavy breathig and grunting it came right up to the wall of the tent and grunted and sniff about, I simply just turn over and went back to sleep!
once I arrived home after the weekend I google wild animal in F.O Dean and it immediately said wild pigs had been reintroduced in F.O Dean for some years now.
When I was on the Iditarod Trail, I had the distinct feeling that I was being followed. It was just getting to the point where I was too tired to carry on, so I was looking for a bivi spot (and swaying alarmingly!) but I heard noises in the trees on the side of the trail. My head torch was too faint to pick anything up when I looked.
I pushed on for another hour or so until the feeling of pursuit faded. Eventually, I had my bivi and forgot about the stalking experience.
I later found out from Jay and Tracey Petervary (who were behind me at the time) that there were lynx tracks stalking me on that section