Is broad crag haunted??

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 Jimmy Bogfoot 23 Jun 2021

Broad Crag

Serious question.

I've only ever been up there twice, once in late autumn in quite terrible conditions after doing scafell pike via the corridor route and once only a few days ago in significantly better conditions. The first time we were up there, the clouds were so low and so dense that you couldn't see further than a few metres ahead of you, the winds so strong that you couldn't walk properly for the fear of putting your foot down a gap between the many boulders and injuring yourself. I was with my girlfriend at the time and nobody else was stupid enough to be up there that day, the summit of scafell pike was completely empty of all people, yet we heard long, low, wailing shouts on the wind that stopped us in our tracks up on broad crag. We were convinced it was the voice of someone calling for help and considered maybe it was climbers on a nearby crag but thought there wouldn't be anyone stupid enough to be messing around in that days weather, and we didn't hear a voice shouting back in response. The second time we went up there we had spent the entire day amazed that we had a clear scafell pike, for once, with amazing views over the fells but after descending from scafell pike and then climbing back up on to broad crag, the clouds came down, the winds picked up again and quickly was that familiar atmosphere of dread that we felt up there the last time generated. By the time we had reached Ill crag, the clouds had cleared up and the visibility had again improved.

Every location has a vibe of it's own and I've climbed plenty of hills, some friendly and some not, but there's something about broad crag that feels foreboding. Maybe it's the endless boulders and something about the appearance of the rocky outcrop that forms the true summit, or maybe it's ghosts.

Do any you feel like broad crag is a spooky place or is it just us? Have you ever had any ghostly experiences in the hills?

 Lankyman 23 Jun 2021
In reply to Jimmy Bogfoot:

Could be the ghosts of dead airmen? I scrambled up the Wasdale flank a few years ago and came across the remains of a crashed aircraft some way above the Corridor Route. When I googled it back home I think it was a Dominie which hit the mountain in 1947 killing everyone aboard. People have allegedly had spooky encounters on Bleaklow by the crashed US bomber there ... It was a lovely day on Broad Crag and I didn't see or hear anything other than the living.

Post edited at 10:20
 wercat 23 Jun 2021
In reply to Lankyman:

I died up there a few years back.  My ghost entertains itself by scaring random folk

seriously,, my memories include a New Years Eve where we walked up to Scafell Pike in thick mist - two torche bulbs failed as we went over Broad Crag, first the fitted one and then the spare shortl after fitting (Petzl Zoom).  then the battery failed and so I fitted a recently bought replacement that died after 5 minutes!

I ended up using a trad rubber torch with a good beam and leading members of the party in an extended line just keeping visual contact so we could keep a sense of direction in the mist going from cairn to cairn.  We made it up in time for the moment of New Year but it was so unpleasant with people drinking and vomiting and messing that we decided to sleep on the way down - so back through the mist to Broad Crag where we decided to bivvy onl to find that we had one sleeping bag among four!

We lay down with it across us covering our chests and middles and spent an uncomfortable night though it was quite mild up there. It felt very spooky when I went for a pee and saw a figure in the mist that turned out to be a tall thin standing stone.  When I turned back I discovered I was not sure of my sense of direction and had to use the wind direction to find my way back to the one sleeping bag and others as I'd recalled it blowing all night on the same side of me.

Post edited at 11:40
 biggianthead 23 Jun 2021
In reply to Jimmy Bogfoot:

A fox?

 Dave Hewitt 23 Jun 2021
In reply to biggianthead:

> A fox?

I wondered that too - foxes at night can be startling, although they (usually vixens, I think) tend to screech/wail at quite a high pitch rather than it being a low sound.

A couple of days ago I was out with a friend who has been up  Scafell Pike over 100 times and will have been on Broad Crag lots too. When I next speak with him at the weekend I'll try and remember to ask if he's ever heard anything strange thereabouts. At a more mundane level I know he once had four blokes follow him to Broad Crag in the mist and they became quite annoyed on learning that where he'd sat down for a quiet lunch wasn't the top of the Pike.

 Rick Graham 23 Jun 2021
In reply to Jimmy Bogfoot:

Have a look at " ghosts in the hills" topic on here in 2013.

Mention of Scafell and Herford I recall.

 guffers_hump 23 Jun 2021
In reply to Jimmy Bogfoot:

Maybe the sound of Curlews? Don't they sound weird?

In reply to Jimmy Bogfoot:

It can have a bit of a malevolent feel. I was up there once for a night run and got temprarily misplavced (lost) in a real pea souper. The crags can be quite disorientating even if you know the area well.  I was also in the vicinity when another plane crashed around Easter 1978 or 1979 on a horrendous day of 80mph winds and driving snow. They escaped after a night in the cockpit but got frostbite.

 wercat 23 Jun 2021
In reply to guffers_hump:

charmingly weird

 Lankyman 23 Jun 2021
In reply to guffers_hump:

> Maybe the sound of Curlews? Don't they sound weird?

I very much doubt you'd hear a curlew on Broad Crag. It's just not their kind of habitat. Not many places in the Lakes are, unlike Swaledale where I am right now. Can't walk for stepping on them here. I think the golden plover has the spookiest call - imagine a small child whimpering. They must have accounted for a few haunting tales.

 Tom Valentine 23 Jun 2021
In reply to Lankyman:

Heard my first barn owl the other week. very disconcerting at first.

Clauso 23 Jun 2021
In reply to Jimmy Bogfoot:

In answer to your original question; no, it isn't... At least, not until Joss Naylor departs to push up some daisies.

 Tonker 23 Jun 2021
In reply to Jimmy Bogfoot:

If I was a ghost I'd find somewhere more hospitable than Broad Crag to scare people.

Maybe Ambleside or Keswick... 

 Dark-Cloud 23 Jun 2021
In reply to Tom Valentine:

Yep, one flew over my tent one evening screeching at about 2.30AM, hell of a noise, I sat bolt upright with my heart thumping trying to reconcile what I had heard.

 Lankyman 24 Jun 2021
In reply to Tom Valentine:

> Heard my first barn owl the other week. very disconcerting at first.

I watched one hunting over the moorland in Arkengarthdale last evening. Had one fly overhead last year above Weardale. They are completely soundless on the wing. Bad news for mice. An owl once landed on my rear windscreen wiper and looked in at me. I think that was a tawny.

 blackcat 24 Jun 2021
In reply to guffers_hump:

Wasn't it Wainwright who described the curlews cry sounding like a warning call (go back ,go back)as he was crossing bleaklow.

 wercat 24 Jun 2021
In reply to blackcat:

he must have been in a bad state then - my mood always rises when I hear them

 blackcat 24 Jun 2021
In reply to wercat:

Ah my mistake he was speaking of the moorland grouse,though he did mention the plaintive cry of the curlew.

 Martin W 24 Jun 2021
In reply to blackcat:

> Wasn't it Wainwright who described the curlews cry sounding like a warning call (go back ,go back)as he was crossing bleaklow.

If it was him then he didn't know much about upland birds. The "go back, go back" call is, quite rightly, mentioned in pretty much every bird book as being characteristic of the red grouse.

 stevesmith 25 Jun 2021
In reply to Jimmy Bogfoot:

This sounds like the set-up for a novel. Mountains do generate an emotional response, especially in wild weather, but ghosts don't exist. Distant sheep can sound like distressed people.


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