From: Dave Ledger <dledger@cableinet.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 02:52:19 +0000
Fwd Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 04:49:22 -0500
Subject: Recent UFO Sightings From Scotland - Part (2)
Greetings again Errol & list,
A few more reports from Bonnie Scotland FYI.
Kind regards
Dave Ledger (UFO Scotland)
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Further Reports:
UFO sighted by three in Kirkcudbright, Scotland.
DATE: Monday 24th August 1998. Approx: 9:45 PM
SOURCE: Source: Eyewitness Report by Ian John.
We recently received this possible UFO sighting from Ian John
who was on holiday with his family, in the Kirkcudbright area of
Scotland, during August of 1998. Ian originally comes from
Merseyside in Liverpool and wrote to tell us about his "all too
familiar sighting" of an anomalous white light in the Scottish
night skies.If any of our readers have any additional
information regarding this sighting,then we would love to hear
from them at the usual address.John's unedited report follows:
Monday 24th August (about 9.45pm)
My father, brother and I were travelling home from a days
fishing in Scotland and where on the main road between Newton
Stewart and Kirkcudbright just as the sky was darkening (you
know the time, when its just dark enough to see the 4 or 5
brightest stars, but no others). I'm frequently out at night
(either fishing or walking the dog) and I am quite familiar with
the stars and plane lights etc in the sky. In the South Eastern
sky just above the hills and trees I noted a very bright light.
At first I assumed it was a planet (Venus was pretty prominent I
think) which because of its relative position to the hills, and
our viewpoint appeared bigger and brighter than normal (like the
Moon does when its low on the Horizon)
I made a point of saying to my dad and brother how bright that
"star" was and paid it little attention for the next few
minutes.
The problem now was we were approaching a minor road to take us
into Kirkudbright and it was a very twisty road. But as I looked
for the bright star again I thought that it had moved. At first
I dismissed it because the road was so bendy, but as the sky was
darkening more and more stars were becoming visible so I noted
the bright light`s position relative to a few stars that were a
recognisable pattern to me.
The problem then was we went behind one of several hills and I
lost sight of the light. Once again I commented to my father and
brother that I thought the star had moved and that it was
probably a helicopter and not a star.
At this point I was quite satisfied with what I`d seen was
explainable and just carried on with the journey talking as per
normal.
About 3 or 4 miles from Kirkcudbright (I estimate), I noticed
the light again and also noted that it HAD moved for definite
this time, not only was it not within the boundary of the
pattern of stars I`d noted, but now I viewed it from the
passenger window, instead of through the top of the windscreen
at the front. It also appeared slightly higher in the sky. By
now I was convinced it was a helicopter, but I could hear no
noise (unsurprising as I was in a noisy Land rover type car) and
the light was constant with no other flashing lights, so I was a
bit puzzled and I watched it closely.
Then the freaky thing happened,
The light (which was brighter than any star in the sky and
almost twice the size) suddenly shrunk from an indefinable
circular blob of light, into a perfect rectangular shape,
clearly defined, then the rectangle faded, similar to a way a
red hot piece of metal cools quickly, and disappeared.
By now we were on the outskirts of Kirkcudbright and I said to
my father and brother "did you see that ?" and explained to them
what I saw. We scanned the sky again but the light was not to be
seen.
As we passed through the small town, our house lay just on the
outskirts, south of the town, nestled between some hills and the
estuary. Just before we left the town centre, the light
reappeared in the South Eastern Sky as bright as when I first
noticed it, coming on like someone switching on a light. As the
road we were on was pretty straight I was able to observe the
light moving from East to West for a few seconds before we lost
sight of it behind the hills.
The position of our house behind the hills made it awkward for
me to observe further, besides It felt silly asking to go back
out and watch a light and I saw nothing further despite looking
from the garden on several occasions. I told everyone what I`d
seen and my brother and father confirmed they`d seen the initial
very bright light.
I`d be interested in what people think what I saw was, I`m
pretty used to night time air traffic with all the time I spend
out at night fishing down the river Mersey near to Liverpool
airport, but that one in Scotland really weirded me out !
I wanted to volunteer the information while it remains sharp in
my mind, so I can keep everything as clear as possible. There is
enough muddy water in this subject without me taking my stick
out and giving it a swirl...
I`ve been interested in UFO`s for a long time but this is the
first time I saw something really odd like this.
I'd be particularly interested if anyone can back up what I saw,
I scanned the local papers in the days after both sightings I
had but there was nothing and I`ve seen nothing on the Internet
either.
(Further info following e-mail interview)
1: What was the year of your sighting? This past August or 1997?
It was this past August, 1998.
2: If you grant permission for us to use the report,do you
request anonymity? Yes feel free to use the report, the more
people read and understand about this the better, use my name if
you want, I don`t mind .
3: Are there any other relevant details that you feel you may be
able to add to your report or a picture or diagram etc? EG:
Direction of object when first sighted to last sighting
etc.Approximate Size compared to an object held at arms length?
Brightness or luminosity of object.Any noises noticed? Weather
conditions at time of sighting.Etc etc.
Direction of object when first sighted : South South Eastern
then North West wards away from the Solway Firth more inland,
before fading. Reappeared in the Western sky before disappearing
moving southwards, behind the hills near to where we were
staying.
Approximate size to object held at arms length : Slightly
smaller than a penny when at its brightest
Brightness or luminosity : Very bright, at least twice as bright
as the brightest star in the sky at that time (which was Venus I
think).
Noises noticed : None, we were in a Frontera, a noisy car and
even with the window down I could hear nothing.
Weather Conditions : Very clear sky, less than 5% cloud cover
I`d say giving me a clear view.
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UFO sighted in Coupar Angus,Scotland?
DATE: 10th July 1998
SOURCE: Witness Report via E-mail,Witness name witheld.
location: Forfar,Kirriemuir Area.
Name : Withheld by request.
date: 10th July 1998
time :Approx 1 am.
Sighting : Whilst walking the dogs down the drive at
approximately 1 am on the 10th of July 1998, a flickering star
caught my eye. It looked like it was shaking or moving or
emmiting a flickering light.
I thought it might be a plane moving and really gave it no more
thought. Then I looked at another star and saw the usual orangy
light, the other one however was a clearer light, a bit like
these new car headlights.
I got the binoculars out when at home to have a look. What I saw
was definately stationery. Or if it was moving it was not that
much.It was clear that it had three colours of flashing lights.
Definatley red and green . It also appeared to have an amber
light. However that might have been from the mixing of the red
and green. These were flashing lights and seemed to be going on
and off on different parts of the UFO, a bit like lights on a
fairground attraction.
It was diffcult to tell but it appears that the lights were only
on the top half. Either that or the shape is like a cup upside
down on a plate! The lights were very clear and flashing fast.
(Additional info following an e-mail interview.)
The Ufo itself was estimated to have been above the
Forfar/Kirriemuir area of Coupar Angus.
Angle / Degree in the Sky,approximately 45 - 55 degrees. The
object was sighted almost due East, or perhaps North East.
The duration was around 15 mins to half an hour, I would say 20
mins approx.
There were no aircraft at all,visable or audible,in the area!
The witness stated, "We are on a military flight path! Often 3
or 4 Hercules C130 transport planes fly over the roof or fighter
planes, I do not know which type I am afraid.(Jaguar/Tornado's
perhaps?)"
The fact that the witness was accustomed to seeing low flying
aircraft in the vicinity suggests that he was clearly able to
establish that the anomalous lights sighted were indeed not any
kind of normal aircraft.It should also be noted that the witness
did get a good look at the object through a pair of binoculars
and still could not identify it.
Weather conditions were very clear for around 1am. All the stars
were orange not very bright compared to sky as whole. It was
still.Not to cold, infact relatively warm and minimal cloud
cover.
Size? as mentioned it was above the tree line but looked miles
and miles up in the sky. To the naked eye it looked the same
size as a star,which is what I thought it was at first. I am not
sure about relative size but compared to the branches in the
foreground it was about the size of a cross between a tennis
ball and football. More tennis ball size though.Through
binoculars that is not the naked eye! If held at arms length it
would be marble sized.
It was most definatley out of the ordinary from what I have
seen, the lights on it, i studied for a while.They were Green
and red, as sharp a colour as lights on planes and ships port
and starboard.
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Balloon type UFO sighted near Wick, Scotland
DATE: 12th August 1998, Time : 11am Approx.
SOURCE: Graham Macdonald Witness Report.
Sighting : I was on a citylink bus travelling from Scrabster to
Inverness, returning south after visiting my parents in the
Orkney Islands. Somewhere between Watten and Wick I noticed what
I took to be a balloon above a field perhaps a couple of hundred
feet away. As the bus got closer I noticed that it was of an
unusual shape it reminded me of "Santa clause" in that it was
red in colour and had the vague shape of a man. I would estimate
it was 50 feet off the ground and perhaps 10 feet tall. It had a
very strange shape being roughly cylandrical with nobbly bits
and a large green "hump" it had what looked like a rope attached
with another balloon(?) attatched to it some 15 feet away from
it, and was totally horizontal to it. What confused me if it was
a balloon was that it was remaining stationary, I Could see no
mooring ropes, plus it was very close to power cables and I
thought this a strange place to moor a balloon. Plus it did seem
windy, with the second balloon tied to the rope looking like it
was being blown in the wind which would explain why the rope was
horizontal. There were quite a few people on the bus and I did
look to see if anyone else was looking at it but no one else
seemed to be. I was too shy to bring it to the attention of
anyone else as I didn't want to look foolish in case it was
something normal!
The bus didn't come any closer than perhaps 200 feet away from
it but I saw it from several different angles and ranges, and
there was definatly no ropes attaching it to the ground, and a
balloon is the best description that I can apply to it as it was
the strangest looking thing that I have ever seen.
(Further info following E-mail interview.)
I too had thought about some kind of observation balloon
(perhaps military) but my best theory is that due to it's
closeness to the power lines perhaps its used by Hydro Electric
to inspect the power lines? But then I've never heard of
anything like that being used in the area, and aerodynamicly the
design of the balloon is a bit crazy. My freind suggested that
perhaps it was used to scare birds from crops like a scarecrow,
but the field it was over was just grazing grassland.
Thinking about it more and doing some research on the web I am
extremely suprised about the lack of oscillation by the main
object, the small one on the rope was oscillating like a
madthing in the wind but the main object displayed absolutley no
movement of any kind. Also being Caithness the horizon is very
low and this gave could viewing of the sky below the object and
the ground and any tether/guy ropes should have been quite easy
to see? Unless they were very thin, but then the light wasn't
brilliant that day so maybe?
Weather conditions were grey and overcast with a fairly medium
wind blowing from the west i would say from the way the bushes
were moving. Being in the bus it was hard to say exactly how
strong the wind was.
It's probaly relevant to say that i'm a keen Avaition enthusiast
and am very familair with aircraft of all sorts. I'm also been
intrested In UFOs for years ever since my grandfather told me of
the Saucer that watched the Dounreay Nuclear Plant in the
1950's.
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If you see someone without a smile......give them one of yours :)
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Posted by: Dave Ledger (mailto:UFOSCOT@cableinet.co.uk)
VISIT "UFO SCOTLAND" AT:
http://wkweb5.cableinet.co.uk/dledger/index.htm
Reach us on ICQ #4851425
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THE TRUTH IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER!..................BUT HOW FAR?
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