The poet James Hogg encountered a Brocken spectre on Ben MacDhui as far back as 1791, describing "a giant blackamoor, at least thirty feet high, and equally proportioned, and very near me. I was actually struck powerless with astonishment and terror." Hogg's terror subsided when he observed the figure making the same gestures as his own, and he satisfied himself that it was merely his own shadow. British mountaineer Frank Smythe stated he had observed his shadow cast as a Brocken Spectre across the mist on Ben Macdhui.