THE AYRSHIRE FOREST GIANT!

I recently learned of a strange event which took place in the vicinity of Balminnoch Farm, Kirkmichael Rd, near the hamlet of Straiton, Ayrshire, sometime around the 18th or 19th April, this year.

Two men were out hunting in the forest behind Balminnoch Farm, at approximately 11pm when they both came running out of the woods in a very frightened state. Both men believed that they had witnessed a large looming, bipedal figure, very dark in colour and possibly around 9 feet tall!

Bigfoot researcher, Robert Shankland, who initially received the report from a 2nd hand source, visited the location and was met by a local farmer, who greeted him saying, " I know what you’re going to ask me about, so you start talking and I'll tell you if it's about the same thing ".

He then went on to confirm that the story was legitimate and that, it was in actual fact, his own daughter's house that the two men had run to in their panic, banging on the door until she opened it.

The farmer phoned his daughter, (who was in work at the time) who then proceeded to tell Robert that, "The witnesses came running out of the woods like two wee frightened schoolgirls!"  and were in, "A very agitated and nervous state indeed!” 

One of the men, in particular, was, “Very, very scared, of something they had both just seen in the forest.” She also said that the men claimed to have seen something in the forest that was, “On two legs, bipedal, very big & looming.”

Balminnoch Woods is a sizable area, with a small loch to the North, located in The area of Straiton, on the Galloway Forest Park boundary, in which there was a large forest fire, a short time before this sighting occurred, which damaged 5 miles of woodland! 

This particular area has become synonymous with possible Bigfoot activity, where our valued correspondent, Robert Shankland, has found several unusual prints and other anomalies.

Scotland is a vast and pristine nation that boasts a trifling 1.9% of its landmass devoted to urban sprawl. If a Bigfoot-like creature were to endure here in the UK and resist our best attempts to capture and catalogue it, I can think of no more remote a realm in our beautiful isles, than there!

By Andrew McGrath

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STICKS AND STONES!

An ‘A Glyph’ found in Irwell Park, Salford in 2017.

Photo by Andrew McGrath

‘Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me!’  - Isn’t that how the old proverb goes? A once powerful retort, invoked by children everywhere to the vocal bully, who, in those innocent days of childhood to which we once belonged, could be stopped in his tracks or made mute and immobilised, by this most cunning of all comebacks, right? But, as adults, or grown olds, we actually experience the reverse, in that, names or more precisely, our name or reputation, can, in fact, hurt us. Ironically, far more than sticks and stones ever could.

When entering the house of cryptozoology, one might think that your reputation should be left at the door, but this could not be further from the truth! This fringe discipline, often clinging on to the edge of methodical principles, is largely tenanted by laymen, who must somehow compete for the attention of professors in the highly regimented and recognised realm of the scientific sphere; where the practice of systematic observation, measurement, experiment, and the formulation, testing and modification of hypotheses, are prerequisite to acceptance!

With this in mind, we creep carefully into the minefield of sticks and stones or, Bigfoot Sign, as some would classify them. One can scarcely join a Bigfoot group on social media these days, without being bombarded by photos or film of trees that have fallen into odd positions, sticks twisted into strange shapes/glyphs, or piles of stones that have allegedly been left as territory markers, by our elusive forest friends. Although most of these signs can be explained away by forest fall and man-made activity, I feel that it is imperative that we deal with some of the regular signs that people encounter and at minimum try to eliminate some of the natural explanations for these supposed anomalies. The importance that is currently assigned to this issue within the research community, is, I believe, damaging on a reputational level and paradoxically in juxtaposition to the childhood proverb, our obsession with these sticks and stones are a direct cause of the names that will inevitably hurt us.

I have compiled a short list here of some regularly observed stick and rock formations, that are associated with Bigfoot activity:

• X: This is often observed as two trees that have fallen across one other, to form the shape of a letter X. the sign is commonly believed to be a territorial marker or barrier to keep other Bigfoot or people out!

• Pinned Arch: Usually, a living tree that has been bent over and pinned beneath another tree, or tree limb/log. Believed by some to point in the direction of water.

• Stick Tepee: a makeshift hut or grouping of sticks, in a free-standing tepee formation, sometimes clumsily leant against a tree. Variously interpreted as temporary lodgings or the bored musings of our hairy friends.

Mini Pinned Arch -  Littleworth Common, Esher, Surrey.
Photo by Andrew McGrath, 2017.

• Bigfoot Kerplunk: Seriously!? This sadly is the only way that I can think of to interpret this particular stick formation, which seems to be a collection of sticks or branches, jammed together from every angle, to form a kind of spikey circle. Some of these examples, in North America at least, seem impossible for humans to replicate without machinery. However, I am not aware of any British examples that fit these criteria. 

• Stick Leans: These are simply branches that have been leant against trees. Often, several branches are observed together facing in the same direction. Additionally, they are often observed leant against several trees in a row. These are believed to be directional markers, left by Bigfoot, to tell other Bigfoot which way they went.

• Glyphs: These are usually small signs, made of intertwined or carefully placed sticks that form a shape or symbol. Some researchers believe that some of these shapes resemble characters from the mysterious Neolithic Vinca markings, an ancient set of symbols found on artefacts from 6th to 5th millennia BC, in Central and South-eastern Europe.

• Rock Stacking & Clacking: These are usually small piles of rocks placed in prominent places, on sawn tree stumps or next to roads and on beaches etc. There are also paired rocks, presumably used for rock clacking, a regularly reported feature of Bigfoot behaviour.

Making a Scene
There are abundant natural explanations for many of these phenomena and it is important that we try to entertain the more mundane possibilities, before assigning a more grandiose character to their manufacturers. The first and most obvious, go to, for much of what we observe in stick structures is windfall. One of my favourite cannibalised sayings is: ‘if a tree falls in the forest, did Bigfoot push it, or do trees just fall in the forest?’ Of course, the answer must be the latter; for wind, snow, and rain and even natural death, in trees, leads to all kinds of strange and unusual formations that may appear unnatural, to the untrained eye.

Another causal explanation for these unusual edifices could simply be that they are man-made. The forest, after all, is host to a myriad of different groups, from forestry workers who regularly cut away deadfall, to wild campers and bush crafters, who like to make huts and dens out of deadfall, (incidentally, this is a regular feature of some children’s activity camps!) Our travelling community in the UK, is also rumoured to employ the use of stick and stone signs in the forest, to indicate resources, like water and to give directions. Which brings us finally, to the biggest bugbear of them all, rock stacking and the rather irritating trend that has recently spread throughout the country, of leaving these teetering towers of terror, in forests, mountains and on beaches, as a kind of middle-class interpretation of the practice of tagging; wherein, the talentless tagger spray paints, ‘Kevin was ‘ere!’, on the wall of some beautiful building, in an attempt to leave his mark upon the world.

In Conclusion:
Should we ignore these signs and exclude them from our research? Certainly not! If both repetition and locality are demonstrable across the spectrum of this physical data, then further investigation is certainly warranted. However, one would also expect other collectable data to be available at these locales, such as tracks, hair samples and animal remains.

Unhappily, as it stands; if one finds sticks in the woods, that is only evidence, of trees!

Written by Andrew M.L. McGrath 

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MONSTER ON THE MEDWAY

The fence line where our witness observed a large figure walking at 8:30am on the 21st Jan 2019.
Photo taken just minutes after sighting.

I was intrigued lately to receive a fresh report about an unusual sighting of a tall, nondescript humanoid, that was observed at 8:30am on Jan 21st, walking along the fence line, of a horse-paddock; around the area of the Medway Estuary and Marshes, in Kent. The location which I visited just a few days later, is sparsely populated and rests on an area of 11,735-acres, that is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and an Internationally Important Wetland for Wild Birds and although there are some relics of old industry scattered around the landscape, it is, quite simply put, pristine habitat!

On my recent visit to this area, the isolation, even during the daylight hours was stark. The seemingly infinite flat marshes bring strong howling winds, which obliterate even the most cumbersome sounds from ones hearing and intensify a strange feeling of vulnerability, which seems to hang in the air. This particular sighting was preceded by the nervous behaviour of the witness's horses and their refusal to approach their feedbags, which are situated on the fence, where the 'figure' was seen, are somewhat telling. The fence line also sits upon the top of a steep embankment, which drops down to a disused railway line, that cuts its way through the landscape and offers an unpleasant fall, for any person foolish enough to walk there.

(You can watch the witness, with the help of her husband, reenact her encounter here and here. Unfortunately, the windy conditions make for difficult listening, but the footage does help to give us an idea of the area and conditions under which this sighting occurred).

There are many other large unidentified humanoid, sightings in Kent, (which can be sourced here) where footprints, shadowing and other types of activity have been observed. This particular group, however, all correlate to the same general area and I would imagine that we are looking at the same individual/s, in each case.

MONSTER ON THE MEDWAY

Monday 21st January 8:30 am:  "I was out in the field, as usual, clearing the horse muck, I was concentrating on what I was doing when out of the corner of my eye I was aware of somebody walking along the other side of the fence and bush line roughly 150 yards away. 

It struck me as odd as no one can get there easily or should be there as ten feet further on is a 30-foot drop to a freight rail line. As I turned to directly to look at the figure, it had obviously seen me first and I saw it move and duck down behind a large bush. 

At that exact moment my dog had also noticed the figure and tore across the field in that direction barking, which confirmed to me that something was there and as I stopped to process what I had seen, I realised that the figure was extremely large, as I had seen his head and shoulders above the bush which is over 6 feet tall. What also struck me was that, although I only saw it take a few steps, the stride pattern was very wide. 

As an aside, recently on occasion, I will turn the horses out into the field and they will stay on the opposite corner of the field looking in that direction, instead of eating from their hay bale, which is very unusual for horses."

 Our witness describing seeing the head and
shoulders of a figure above this bush, before it ducked out of sight!

ISLE OF GRAIN, SASQUATCH

A good friend of mine has lived in a remote Kent farmhouse, along The Medway on The Isle of Grain, for a number of years now and has experienced some strange goings-on and at one point she saw what she could only describe as a "large Sasquatch type creature" on her property. She described seeing a tall, hairy, creature; that looked like a cross between a man and an ape, walking upright on two legs. There is a caravan (mobile home) standing on the property and this has been rocked and banged upon a few occasions. I asked my friend to explain what this creature looked like and she said: "The creature itself has been seen leaning over a Ford Escort Van, and although it wasn't standing straight up, but was hunched over, the roof of the van still only came up to its stomach."

There are very few houses in the area. If you go there and have a look around you can see how it wouldn't be too difficult to get around unseen. Situated between Allhallows and the Isle of Grain, the area is a wildlife haven and is protected under law. As I say it's quite isolated. There are lots of water sources and a few woodlands. It gets more wooded as you follow the river, not too far away.

It has been seen by our friends up close and doesn't seem to be put off by their presence. I have been invited out to camp there so I'm going to spend time looking around the sightings spots. We live in the area ourselves on a local farm and have seen what looked like a very large print of something laying down as if a large animal had made a bed or a nest of some kind in the tall grass. We are local to a river, power lines, a disused train track and plenty of woods and forest.

Part of the river Medway, snakes its way through the marshes on the
Isle of Grain, a protected habitat, teeming with animal life.

THE HAIRY MAN OF COOLING, KENT

In 2011, My son and his friend were in the fields, in the early hours before morning light. They were both getting set up for the day, when they saw a very large, hairy man, running along some hay reels. They said, “The man like creature saw us, and then 'it' took off at great speed across the hay reels and headed for some woods."  I don't think they saw its face clearly as they mostly saw the 'creature' as it moved off. They said it was really tall and was all hair covered and had some sort of weird hair at the back, almost mane-like. It spun its head as if to hide its face, as soon as 'it' saw them looking at it and then took off running on two legs, moving very fast, across the top of the hay reels. It was moving with ease and ran off up toward the woods. This happened in Cooling Kent, it frightened the life out of them both. We are surrounded by Thames Marshes that are very vast and go on for miles. My son didn't think of Bigfoot to describe this 'thing' until I was surfing the net and I asked my son about it. He agreed that it looked like the 'thing' he saw and he won't go up that way anymore.

A disused railway line that lies beneath the horse paddock.
The large figure our witness observed would have been walking 
to the far right-hand side of this frame

Although these incidents seem solitary and anomalous, in relative proportion to the sparse population in this part of Kent, it would actually appear to be quite the opposite and in fact, the continued interactions around homes and with people that we see in these cases, would seem to indicate a boldness that is not often noted in most alleged Bigfoot 'habituations' in the UK.

Our investigation of this area is ongoing and we hope to collect some compelling evidence over the coming months.


Written by Andrew McGrath

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