Written Confession: The Legs in the Woods Near the Beaghmore Stone Circles
The following written confession was shared via Reddit by Jukes4Spooks:
In 2017, I was in Northern Ireland for a college field trip. My religious studies class was visiting stone circles throughout N. Ireland and Ireland to focus on religious geography.
On this particular day, I think we were visiting the Beaghmore Stone circles. It was a normal cloudy day and we were enjoying learning the history of the bronze age wonder, excitedly waiting to go back to the hotel to begin a new day of pub-hopping. I remember the stone circles being separated from the nearby woods with a small wire fence. For some reason, we were hanging around the fence, peering at the woods that lay not twenty yards away. We had yet to go into any woods during our trip, staying mainly at the sites surrounded by farm land. I remember wanting very much to go into this old wood, for whatever reason. We all seemed to feel curious about it.
I decided to climb over the small farm wire fence and see if there was anything interesting in the woods. Now, these woods were different then the woods I was used to in North America. The branches were thick, too thick to stand in. I had to bend at the waist to traverse them, the ground was covered in a soft light brown moss, broken up by tree roots. I remember quickly moving under the branches, staring at the ground as to not trip. I felt giddy, like I was a child going somewhere my parents told me not to. I felt light and I began to pick up speed. I suddenly looked up to make sure I wasn’t about to run into a tree trunk, when something made me stop in my tracks.
I saw legs. Human legs. I could only see their legs, like someone was standing straight up in the trees. The branches were too thick to stand in, but this person(?)’s legs were the only thing visible. I felt an almost animal response of fear, fear that didn’t really make sense. I told myself they couldn’t see me, because I could not see their face, but for some reason I felt that they knew I was there. Why would someone be out here? We were the only group at the circles and there were no houses nearby. I looked behind me and realized I was much farther in the woods than I had thought. I could barely see the light from the place I entered. It was so quiet, they had to have heard me approach. My only thought was ‘I am closer to them than I am to the entrance, they could get me before I make it out’. I was only standing there, bent over for no more than a minute, but it felt like forever. I didn’t see them move but I could tell they were facing toward me, not away. I now really felt like I was somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be, only this time instead of giddy, I felt nauseous.
As if I was a deer and they: a hunter, I turned and bolted. I flew through those trees, still bent to avoid collision. I didn’t look down this time, stumbling as fast as I could, just focused on the light at the end of the trees. I felt branches pull my hair and clothes as I ran. I couldn’t hear anything over my own breathing. As soon as I broke the tree line, I felt a weight lift. The group standing at the fence looked startled by me bursting out of the woods. I told them that I think I saw someone, but it almost felt wrong to talk about it.
We left soon after. I don’t know what I think it was. Was it a person hanging out deep in the forest? Was it a fae? A spirit? The Green Man? All I know is that it felt otherworldly.
