CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
Scotland is flying high when it comes to spooky UFO sightings
Our top ten Scottish UFO sightings and alien encounters
The Robert Taylor Incident
This is considered one of the most significant ‘close UFO encounters’ in Scotland. On November 9, 1979, Robert Taylor, a forestry worker, encountered an alleged UFO in a wooded area near Livingston. Taylor turned into a clearing and noticed he was standing a few feet away from a large circular object – six metres wide and three metres high. It appeared to be made of dark grey metallic material with a rough texture. Taylor claimed two spheres dragged him towards the larger object before he lost consciousness. He woke up, battered and bruised, to find himself alone.
Edinburgh
Back in 1992, Pat McLeod was in her car when a flashing light in the sky caught her eye. As she watched, it drew closer and closer. McLeod could make out a ring surrounding the sphere, kind of like Saturn. It was as wide as an aircraft’s wingspan. Around the circumference were windows, glowing with light. The craft hovered over Duddingston Park then drifted to a field next to Niddrie Burn. The object had landed in an area surrounded by high rise flats in broad daylight, yet McLeod seemed to have been the only person to see it.
FIRST SIGHTING IN BONNYBRIDGE
With more than 300 sightings every year, Bonnybridge has become the official UFO capital of Scotland. Forming part of the ‘Falkirk Triangle’, the area stretches from Stirling to a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Edinburgh. The first sighting in Bonnybridge was in 1992. A local businessman, James Walker, was driving from Falkirk to Bonnybridge, when he was suddenly stopped by a sparkling, star-shaped object seemingly flying about over the road and blocking his path. Walker sat in his car and watched it until the object flew away at an incredible speed.
PORTOBELLO
In July 1947, 22-year-old Andrew Cherry waited at his bus stop on Baileyfield Road. He spotted an object in the sky, disc-shaped with a large glass dome. The UFO was hovering at 300 feet, close enough for Cherry to see its humanoid occupant. The ‘alien’ was beside a control panel of some kind. The object suddenly tilted, spun away and disappeared in a matter of seconds.
Glasgow
In December 1983, Tom Coventry was in Glasgow’s King’s Park area. He spotted a low object with spurts of flame. The vessel was grey and shaped like a railway carriage, and it had three windows revealing swirling yellow smoke inside. It moved off slowly before shooting into the sky.
The Fife Incident
On the evening of September 23, 1996, Mary Morrison, her ten-yearold son Peter and her friend, Jane, noticed a huge white light in the sky, which then split into two. They stopped the car and watched the bright spotlights illuminating the ground before them. There was a huge black triangular object with numerous red lights attached to it. Things became more dramatic when Morrison noticed a silhouette of ‘little beings’ in the lights.
FRASERBURGH
Morag Ritchie was woken in the middle of an October night in 2012 by flashing lights in the sky right above her family’s rural Aberdeenshire home. The lights were moving in a spinning motion and occasionally shot off to the side. Ritchie woke the rest of her family up to witness the event. The group ventured outside to film the paranormal object that was seen in the same spot for almost five hours.
THE A70 ABDUCTION
On 27 August, 1992, Garry Wood and Colin Wright were driving on the A70 when they spotted a disc-shaped object 20 feet above the road. As they passed below, a shimmering mist touched the car and everything went black. Later, under hypnosis, the men recalled having been forced aboard the UFO by small humanoid creatures, claiming they were examined before being returned to their car.
LOCH NESS
Tourists were stunned to find they had caught on camera what appears to be a pair of UFOs hovering above the home of the Loch Ness Monster in April 2015. Alan Betts was on holiday with his wife, Anna, and her parents, when the group captured an image of two mysterious white disc-shaped objects flying over the loch. Betts said he was very sceptical about UFOs, but couldn’t offer an explanation for the spooky picture. ‘Our dog was unsettled that night. He never barks, but I remember laughing at the time saying he’d seen Nessie because he was looking out and barking at the sky. We couldn’t see anything at that time though.’
Grangemouth
Two friends were taking photographs of the BP chemicals plant in Grangemouth on 12 November 1991, at around 9.30pm, when they noticed two small dim flashing lights near the Kincardine Bridge. They watched the hovering object and realised it wasn’t making any noise. At the point they took a photograph, the object was about 200 feet above them. What could be seen was the underside of the object – concave, with numerous bright flashing lights.