The world knows very little about Northern Ireland and all this is mainly related to politics (terrorism, armed conflicts).
However, this country, like many others, also has special anomalous zones where unusual things happen and where UFOs or strange animals are seen.
This place is officially called Ballyboli Forest, and unofficially "Irish Cannock Chase" (Cannock Chase anomalous zone in England). Here, among the moss-covered and eerie-looking trees, there are ancient megaliths and the remains of medieval houses.
But as soon as you step aside from the trodden paths by tourists, you find yourself in a constantly dark and littered with brushwood and stones forest, as if descended from the screens of horror films.
At the same time, the forest itself is not at all ancient, most of the trees were planted here about 60 years ago, but this area, now densely planted with trees, has caused people to be confused for a long time and was considered cursed. Druids wandered here, terrible monsters ran and unusual things happened. Ghosts in antique clothes are still often seen here.
According to local rumors, from the 15th to the 17th century, people in the area disappeared almost every week. As soon as someone went there for brushwood or for berries, as with a high degree of probability, this person did not return. And those who went in search of him did not even find a corpse and themselves could disappear without a trace.
According to some versions, in those years there lived a sect of pagans who worshiped the ancient Celtic gods and killed people as sacrifices. Repeatedly accidental eyewitnesses observed here bonfires burning at night and people in black hoods who performed incomprehensible rituals near the megaliths. They usually killed animals and then burned them in bonfires, but they could kill a person, and this was also witnessed.
Promotional video:
Some said that all these rituals and sacrifices were not just a ritual, so these pagans opened something like a "portal to another world" and went there. In addition to the usual single megalithic stones, circles of stones, incomprehensible "altars" and other stone structures, which are many hundreds (if not thousands) of years old, were found in this area.
When animals were tortured and killed, the cries of the unfortunate creatures spread throughout the area, and those who never went to these places and did not see druids and people in hoods also heard them. And the same happens here in our time.
In 2005, a young student with fellow students went to this forest with an overnight stay. In the evening, when they had already started looking for a parking space, someone from the group shouted that there was someone walking between the trees ahead. Looking closely, the student saw that these were people in dark robes.
“We counted four and in their hands were not lanterns, but primitive torches made of wooden branches. Later, from the same side, we began to hear loud cries and screeching of animals. Our imaginations painted the most eerie pictures, in a religious country like Northern Ireland you grow up with many stories about the existence of devil worshipers and that they hide in secluded places and carry out their terrible rituals there.
In the end, it all calmed down and we could do nothing but return to our tents and go to bed. The next morning we only joked a little on this topic."
A similar story happened in 1997, when two tourists went to the forest and when they walked among the trees, they heard unusual sounds, similar to something pulling. And the closer they got to the source of the sounds, the more it sounded like a female lingering moan in pain. Then they began to hear screams, also female, and then everything suddenly fell silent.
Everything became more creepy when both tourists soon went out into a small clearing and found a tree there, bathed in fresh blood. There was no one by the tree, but they quickly matched the female moans and cries and this find, and then fled from this forest as quickly as possible.
This forest is very picturesque and it is not surprising that many tourists go there. However, many of them complain of severe headaches, nosebleeds, nausea, or fainting that occur in the forest. All of this, too, often happens simultaneously with a strange waste of time.
It happens something like this: A person walks, looks at his watch and sees there, for example 13.25, and then walks further along the path, bypasses the bush, he becomes sick, dizzy, nausea comes, he may lose consciousness. A couple of minutes pass and he feels better, but when he looks at his watch again, he sees the time there at 15.45 or even later. And no one can remember what happened in these wasted minutes and hours.
There are also special zones in this forest where all sounds disappear completely. If you go to such a clearing, then all the birds will be silent at once and if you scream, no one will hear you from this zone. True, none of the researchers of anomalous phenomena did not experiment here, and all these "silent zones" are known only from the words of individual tourists.
In addition to sectarians and strange phenomena over time, they also see unusual ape-like creatures. In Irish, these creatures are called "gruagah", which means "something hairy."
Despite the fact that in the Irish tradition it is most often depicted as a huge two-legged boar, the creature from Balliboli Forest looked like a huge monkey. She was seen either directly among the trees, or heard the howling sounds that were attributed to her. Drumming on tree trunks was also a gruagah.
In 1998, local resident Caroline Breen walked through the Balliboli forest with her husband and dog. Suddenly they saw something large and dark ahead that sat under a fallen tree.
“At first we thought it was a man, but when he looked up, it became clear that it was something else. At the same time, our dog became agitated and began to whine and bark, looking at this creature. Meanwhile, it got to its feet and took several steps forward.
It looked like a large chimpanzee, but it was very tall, and in its hands it was holding a large stick. Then he rushed to run and disappeared behind the trees. He did it so quickly and deftly, as if he had done it a thousand times, leaving my husband and me standing with our mouths open in surprise."
According to this woman, the face of the creature was exactly like that of a chimpanzee, dark brown and wrinkled. The body was covered with dark brown fur, but it was more than 2 meters high, no less.
On the territory of Northern Ireland as a whole, they often see creatures that do not look like typical yeti (huge, muscular and without a neck), but rather dexterous monkeys or very primitive "cavemen". Someone even believes that there are portals through which the ancient ancestors of people simply enter our world for a while.
