This mysterious story of a hairy monster that persecuted the inhabitants of an ancient castle in Ireland, became known in the 1930s. According to two ghost investigators, this story took place in the second half of the 19th century and was described in detail by Maud Fowlkes in her book “True Ghost Stories”, published in 1937.
As stated in Fouloukes’ book, Sir Reginald Span, a priest of the Anglican church in Arizona, was ready to vouch for the truthfulness of this story, as it happened to his friends who were vacationing in the picturesque castle in the south of Ireland, shot for the summer. ”
It all began with the fact that a certain Mrs. A. was sitting late in the evening in one of the rooms of the castle (the name of the castle is not indicated anywhere) in anticipation of the return of her husband. Suddenly she heard a knock at the door outside, and then there were loud, strange steps. Someone or something was walking there outside the walls of her room in the corridor or on the street near the entrance with a staircase.
The woman took a lighted candle and left the room. To her horror, she saw on the stairs a dark figure, which ascended upstairs to her room. Probably, the creature felt that they noticed it and it raised its head and looked at the woman at point-blank range, forcing the woman to freeze from fear.
This creature possessed a strong and hairy body, like a monkey, but its head was like a man, although also overgrown with long hair. For a few moments she looked at the woman with a rather malicious expression, and then suddenly disappeared, as if she had dissolved into the air.
But the story did not end there. A few days later the mysterious hairy monster saw the husband of that woman. It was inside the castle. At first he heard a terrible laugh, echoing through the old halls of the building, and then he saw in the shadows in the niche a large hairy monkey with a man’s head, just as his wife had told him before.
Apparently the man was able to better see the mysterious creature, since he described it in more detail later. He said that the creature’s hair / coat was a reddish-brown color and meeting with him looked like a nightmare from a dream. After seeing the man ran to his bedroom in horror.
For the next few days everything was pretty quiet, but then the creature (or ghost) returned. Mrs. A. at that time was in the living room and decorated the table with flowers. Suddenly she felt two pairs of hands lie on her shoulders. Mrs. A. thought that it was her daughter and turned and at that moment saw a creature towering above her, at least 6 feet tall (180 cm). It made a strange, ghastly sound and Mrs. A. screamed in horror at once.
When her friend ran to her cry, the creature disappeared also suddenly and incomprehensibly where, as in the previous time. After this incident, all guests quickly collected their belongings and returned to the US.
The explorer of the anomalous phenomena Ronan Colan, in connection with the study of this history, notes that there is an old Irish word “gruagach”, which can be translated as a “cannibal” “magician” or “giant”, but most often it is used in relation to a large hairy creature. And mention of this creature can be found even in the Norwegian text of the 13th century about Ireland. There it is mentioned that in Ireland people once grabbed a wild hairy man, whose mane grew along his back.
In another ancient Irish text, wild people named “Gelt” (Gelt) are described and how they appear. These creatures are men who lose their minds from fear in battles between clans. They run in fear into the woods and live there like wild beasts, avoiding communication with people. According to stories from the people, after 20 years in such forests on the bodies of these creatures feathers grow and they protect them from frost. These creatures can run around the trees as quickly as monkeys or squirrels.
Geltam needed for life only water to drink, water plants, to eat and bedding for sleep. More of them did not care and did not care. Since there are no actual contemporary meetings with the Gelt in Ireland, the researcher Kolan is wondering whether it is possible that the specter of such a creature was frightened at the guests’ castle, and not by itself?
