"Incident in Scotland"

Extract from T Dodds Book 'Alien Investigator'

It was 8 p.m. on a September evening in 1996, with still enough light in the sky for children to be playing outside. Mary and her friend Jane, two mothers in their thirties, were settling down for a gossipy evening watching television together. Mary's son Peter, aged ten. and Jane's daughter Susan, fourteen, were with them. When Mary realised that she had run out of coffee, the two women decided to get into the car and drive to the nearest late-opening shop, a few miles away in another village. They took Peter with them leaving Susan at home because she wanted to watch a programme on TV

The route took them along a remote country road in the quiet corner of Scotland where they lived, so they were astonished to see, as dusk fell around them, two powerful beams of white light illuminating one of the fields next to the road. As they approached, they could make out a dark shape in the sky, from which the light was coming. Mary halted the car, and all three of them watched in fascination. The field and a small plantation of trees next to it were flood-lit by 'the brightest light I have ever seen in my life' according to Jane.

They all climbed out of the car to get a better look. They could make out the underside of a huge triangular-shaped craft with three red lights on each angle. It was silent, but in the distance the women suddenly detected the rumble of aeroplane engines. Suddenly the strange craft shot away, across the heads of the observers, at such speed that it appeared to jump a mile across the valley. Jane described it as disappearing and reappearing in the distance simultaneously.

Peter was upset and started to cry. The two women shepherded him back into the car and comforted him, but they were preoccupied by the strangeness of what they had seen. Their initial supposition, that the object was an aeroplane or a helicopter had been completely demolished when they saw its size -about eighty feet across - and witnessed its silent manoeuvres at incredible speed.

They carried on with their journey, bought the coffee, and then returned along the same route, discussing who they should notify about the strange craft. When they reached the same spot on the road, Mary cut the engine again and they peered in the direction that the craft had disappeared. All three of them could make out a faint red dot of light. To their astonishment, it shot across the sky towards them and hung in the air over their car, 'as if it was aware of our presence', Jane said. Both the women were shrieking with a mixture of excitement and fear. Peter though, was terrified, and almost hysterical. As quickly as it had arrived, the spacecraft returned to its position in the distance, with only a faint red light as evidence of its existence.

Mary drove them home. They were shaken, but determined not to let what they had seen go unreported, despite Susan scoffing and insisting that she did not believe a word of it. They called the operator, hoping to be given advice as to who to ring, and were given the number of the UFO Hotline. Many telephone operators across Britain had the special number. I was not manning the Hotline that evening, but one of my colleagues advised the women to go back as quickly as possible to the scene with binoculars and a camera. Unfortunately, they had neither. But they returned anyway, taking Susan with them. Even Peter, despite his fear, insisted on going with them. By this time it was quarter to ten, and dark.

When they reached the same area, a powerful blue glow appeared at the far end of a field, above tree-top height. There was no sign of any mysterious craft, but when they parked in a lane to watch the light they became aware that a large star-like object was visible at the top edge of the diffuse glow, and it was pulsing and growing larger and smaller. Coloured beams of light in red, green and blue were shooting up in the air from it.

Suddenly, perhaps because their eyes were growing accustomed to the dark. They all became aware of the silhouettes of several thin figures moving about on the ground. They were obviously not human, and they were all small, with the exception of one, who was about a foot taller than the rest. On the ground the observers could make out an indeterminate black shape, towards which the figures, who were emerging from the plantation of trees, appeared to be moving.

Terrified, Mary slammed the car into reverse and shot backwards up the lane until she found a place to turn round, and then drove her frightened passengers home to Jane's house. As they discussed what they had seen and reassured each other that they were not going mad, Jane's brother arrived on his way home from work and offered to lend them some binoculars. Despite their fears, all four decided to go back once again to the scene.

When they got there, the blue light was still glowing, and they could see the small beings moving in and out of the trees. They took it in turns to use the binoculars, all four of them lined up against a dry-stone wall at the edge of the field where the activity was. Later, I sent one of my field investigators to interview them, and he tape-recorded the following statement from Jane:

'I could see one big star which I thought was on the ground. It was a large, transparent, illuminated capsule-type thing, rippled on the outside with indentations like a brain. There were some very small, thin beings inside it. Next to this capsule was another smaller one, otherwise identical to the first one. This contained a tall being with brown skin. The capsule was moving, slowly rotating. I then looked toward the ground and saw the big craft we had first seen. It appeared to be on the ground near the woods. There were lots of lights around it and dozens of these small entities who seemed to be working in groups. They were going in and out of the woods. They appeared to be putting things on the ground and picking things up. Each group was carrying small boxes and canisters between the woods and the craft’.

'I saw other capsules which looked like cocoons coming out from the trees, they suddenly shot across the field to where we were standing. I was very frightened and started screaming. The objects were quite close to us, and we could see that each of the capsules contained one of the small entities. They were no more than four feet from us and there were dozens of them. Then pandemonium broke out, with Mary, Susan and Peter all screaming. I vaguely remember shouting. "Let's get out of here." and we drove back home.

'Later it was strange because I started to remember things and somehow it felt that they had taken us towards their craft. I remember this place, it was very bright, I couldn't move and they were doing things to me. They didn't hurt me so I felt happy. The little ones were smiling at me with their big eyes, and taking things from me, which they gave to a tall being. He touched them with a long probe-like rod. The little creatures were about four to five feet tall, there was nothing human about them at all. The tall one had a nose and very slanted eyes oriental-like. There was no obvious sex gender nor did I see a body shape or waistline. They did have two arms and two legs, and when they communicated they made strange noises - high-pitched, like whales. I didn't hear them talking, it just "happened" in my head.

'I don't think they enjoyed what they were doing, it was just work. They seemed very efficient and knew exactly what they were doing. When we got home I was very frightened and kept asking Mary, hoping that she would say I had imagined the whole thing. But she confirmed that it had really happened.'

Mary independently made a very similar statement about what they had seen, although she had no memory of being taken on board the craft or of being touched by the strange creatures. The two children, Susan and Peter also both confirmed to my investigator that they had witnessed all the events apart from Jane's abduction.

The first time I spoke to Mary and Jane was the evening it happened, when they again rang the UFO Hotline, this time after their fourth and final encounter. It was late at night, and the Hotline had been switched through to me. Often at night we leave it on the answering machine, but when I heard the panic in Jane's voice I switched the phone over and talked to her. She was very distressed, and it took me some time to calm her down. In the end, all four of them slept together in the same bedroom, with the light on. It took a couple of weeks before any of them were happy to sleep in the dark again.

In the weeks after their encounters, the other three also began to retrieve memories of being on board the spacecraft. Luckily, the Scottish field investigator I used, Brian Rooney, is a trained social worker, and was able to work with them and help them come to terms with their experiences. He also visited the scene of the encounter and photographed burn marks on the ground, and semi-circular impressions. Nearby trees and bushes were heavily coated with white spider-web material, as though they had been blasted with it. Although there was no motor access within 200 yards of the scene, he was convinced that a heavy vehicle had been on the land.

I have spoken to both the women many times since the incidents, and they are still profoundly shaken by them. One family has moved away from the area completely. Neither of them wants to have their name published, they are not seeking publicity, and they would much prefer it if the events of that night had not happened. But they accept that they cannot undo them, and they want an explanation. There are times when I wonder why I give so much of my life to the fight to get this whole subject out in the open.' times when my own safety - and that of my family - is under threat, times when the combined forces of world governments seem too daunting. Then I think of women like Mary and Jane: ordinary people, going about their everyday business, with no interest in UFOs or aliens, who are suddenly sucked into the middle of these strange events. Not only do they face the trauma of what happened to them, but they face the frustration of not being able to speak openly about that night for fear of ridicule.

Site updated 23rd April 2005                        email to jay-ess@supanet.com