The Lord of the rings
Crop circle led noble to study paranormal
HE grew up in one of Scotland’s grandest stately homes, was educated at Eton and is heir to the title of Earl of Haddington.
But now Lord Binning has turned his back on high society to investigate the unexplained – and it is all thanks to a childhood encounter with a crop circle.
While his ancestors include a cabinet member, an admiral and a brigadier-general, the 26-year-old, who was born George Edmund Baldred Baillie-Hamilton, is determined to defy convention and pursue a career writing about ghosts, mystical powers and UFOs.
The young aristocrat, whose family own an 8,000-acre estate in the Borders, also plans to reconnect with his pastoral roots by carrying out voluntary work at an inner city farm.
But it was when his father, the 13th Earl of Haddington, took him as a schoolboy to see the strange circles that had appeared overnight in fields of wheat and barley that his interest in the paranormal was born.
Lord Binning is now a regular contributor to the Fortean Times, a magazine which chronicles strange phenomena.
The Glasgow University graduate said: ‘People are often surprised when they find out what I write about, but I have a lot of fun doing it. The Fortean Times is a fascinating publication and I’ve been reading it since I was eight. I love writing and combining it with travel.
Like his father, he has spent countless hours investigating the crop circles which have appeared sporadically in British fields since the 1970s and keeps an open mind about their origin.
He said: ‘You can’t really believe in flying saucers, ghosts, crop circles and the rest of it all at once.
‘However, I wouldn’t disbelieve in anything necessarily. I’m open to all possibilities.
‘To back any one explanation, even the theory of human creation, requires a leap of faith. There are various other theories which suggest flying saucers, pagan gods or even inter-dimensional beings are responsible.’
The Old Etonian writes under the name George Binning and rarely uses his title. He said: ‘There is not much opportunity and not much point in calling myself Lord Binning. Very few people call me Mr, never mind Lord.’
However, he insists his father is proud of him. He said: ‘I suppose, like any parent, he would be happier if I had a more steady job.
‘But, I think he is glad that I’m doing something I love and I think I’m making a pretty good fist of it actually’.