Nick Redfern January 19, 2022

My previous article was titled “The Biggest Cryptozoological Puzzle? The British Bigfoot.” It was thanks to Brent Swancer’s new article on this strange topic of the U.K. Sasquatch that I decided to write today’s article. As I noted in my previous article, there’s no doubt the British Bigfoot is a paranormal creature. There are a number of reasons why we should go with that theory for the creature. I say “the creature” because of all the reports I have on-file, not even one involves more than one creature. That’s right: they are always solitary. Now, let’s see further why these Bigfoot-type things can only be of a supernatural nature. I mentioned in my earlier feature that the first creature I really investigated was that of the U.K.’s Man-Monkey, a hair-covered beast, spectral in nature, and that, so far, has roamed the area for more than 140 years! See what I mean about the paranormal angle of these hairy things? Now, let’s look at some other examples of all this weirdness. How about the creature of Castle Ring? And what, you may ask, is Castle Ring? Let’s see. Reports of hairy wild men absolutely abound throughout the English county of Staffordshire, but there is one area of the county that seems to attract a great deal more than its fair share of such activity. Its name is deeply familiar to one and all throughout the area as Castle Ring. Located near to the village of Cannock Wood, Castle Ring is an Iron Age structure commonly known as a Hill Fort. It is 801 feet above sea level, and its main ditch and bank enclosure is fourteen feet high and, at its widest point, 853 feet across.

(Nick Redfern) The remains of the ancient Castle Ring

It has to be admitted that very little is known about the mysterious and long-forgotten people who built Castle Ring, except to say that they were already in residence at the time of the Roman invasion of A.D. 43 and remained there until approximately A.D. 50. Some suggest that the initial foundations of Castle Ring may even have been laid as early as 500 B.C. Moreover, historians suggest that the creators of Castle Ring might have represented a powerful body of people that held firm sway over certain other parts of Staffordshire, as well as significant portions of both Shropshire and Cheshire at the time in question. While its enigmatic builders exited our world millennia ago, and left us with very little solid knowledge of who they were or what they actually represented, Castle Ring can claim to play host to far stranger entities, including…well, by now, do I really have to tell you? Really? I strongly suspect that, at this stage, I probably don’t. On May 1, 2004, Alec Williams was driving passed the car-park that sits at the base of Castle Ring when he witnessed a hair-covered, man-like entity lumber across the road and into the trees. A shocked Williams stated that the sighting lasted barely a few seconds, but that he was able to make out its amazing form.

Then, there are the creatures of Stonehenge. Yes, you did read that right. Author Merrily Harpur has logged a fascinating account from one George Price, who had an undeniably bizarre experience on Salisbury Plain in September 2002, while then serving with the British Army. It was at the height of a military exercise, Harpur was told, and Price was a ‘commander in the turret of our tank, and we were advancing to contact our warriors’. Suddenly, Price’s attention was drawn to a “large, ape-like figure” that “‘looked scared because of the noise from the engines and tanks were moving at speed all around.” Although the beast was not in sight for long – it raced for the safety of “nearby prickly shrubs” – an amazed Price could see that ‘its fur was similar to an Orangutan in color…its height was impressive…[and] it seemed to run with its back low, i.e. bent over.” Salisbury Plain is not just home to military maneuver, however. It is also home to one of the world’s most famous ancient stone circles: Stonehenge. So, we have yet another ancient site associated with strange beasts.

(Nick Redfern) Hanging out at Stonehenge

Jon Downes says of the weirdness that dominates Lustleigh Cleave: “I have got reports of sightings of a ghostly Tudor hunting party, of mysterious lights in the sky, and even the apparitions of a pair of Roman Centurions at Lustleigh Cleave.” But, adds Jon, getting to the most important aspect of the story, “Theo Brown`s friend saw, clearly, a family of ‘cave men,’ either naked and covered in hair or wrapped in the shaggy pelts of some wild animal, shambling around the stone circle at the top of the cleave.” And we still aren’t finished. Beyond any shadow of a doubt, one of the most sensational of all the many and varied British Bigfoot controversies of recent years is that which concerns a hairy, man-like thing that has become known as the Beast of Bolam. In the latter part of 2002 and early 2003, Jon recalls that, with respect to both him and the staff of his Center for Fortean Zoology…

“…there occurred a huge ‘flap’ of Big Hairy Men (BHM) sightings throughout the British Isles that we could not afford to ignore and that required our immediate attention. Indeed, such was the scale of this extraordinary wave of encounters that, even as we made firm plans for an expedition in March, a handful of new sightings of large, man-beasts from the Bolam Lake area of Northumberland, England, arrived in our e-mail In-Box in January that prompted us to undertake an immediate study of the evidence.” On a cold, wintry morning shortly afterwards, Jon and his team hit the North. Very strange things happened: electrical equipment failed time and again and Jon saw a large, shadow-like creature racing through the trees. I could go on and on. Other U.K. creatures that come into this category include the Big Grey Man of Ben Macdhui, the Green-Faced Monkey of Churston Woods and the Beast of Brassknocker Hill. I could go on and on. Indeed, there is a huge body of data. All of it points towards the world of the paranormal and not to the worlds of zoology or cryptozoology.

(Nick Redfern) Monster-hunter, and good friend, Jonathan Downes

MU*

AUTHOR PROFILE

People's Tonight