Peak District walker followed by 'ghostly figure surrounded by rainbow halo'

Andrew Staniforth, 70, was enjoying a morning walk in the Peak District on a misty Sunday, before he spotted something strange at the top of Rushup Edge.

He said: “I was walking from Castleton to the top of Rushup Edge. It was very misty and foggy on the way up, but the at the top there was clear blue sky above a thick layer clouds below.

“Then I saw this marvellous thing. It looked like a figure with a halo around. I am a 70-year-old man, I go for walks in the countryside quite often and I have never seen anything like this before. The first thing I thought about was questioning what I saw.

“I don’t know how long it was there, but I was looking at it for half an hour. There were other people looking at it as well. When I started walking back it looked as if the figure was following me.”

When Mr Staniforth got back home to Sheffield, he drew what he saw during his walk and contacted local media. His drawing was later shown on ITV Calendar during the weather programme.

Mr Staniforth said: “This sight was something new to me. I called it a double, circular fogbow but after the weather lady at ITV Calendar had put a name to it, I was able to easily google it up.”

Mr Staniforth realised that what he had seen was ‘Brocken Spectre’, a rare weather occurrence which can be seen only in very specific conditions.

The term 'Brocken spectre' was created in 1780 by Johann Silberschlag, a German pastor and natural scientist, and describes a phenomenon which occurs when an observer stands on a hill partially covered in mist and in such a position that their shadow is thrown on to the mist.

They get the illusion that the shadow is a person standing in the mist and surrounded by a halo. The shadow falls upon water droplets of varying distance which creates a ‘rainbow’ around the shadow. When the walker starts moving, the shadow is following them, what looks as if the figure was walking too.