Ron Halliday's UFO Top Ten - Ten - Six

By Graham Fraser
Unexplained: James MacLean caught these UFOs over Glasgow in December 1995© James MacLean

Ron Halliday, author of several books on UFOs and the paranormal, tells STV what he thinks are the top ten unexplained events in Scottish history.

10. Forth Railway Bridge

One day in 1962, engineering graduate Charles Farquharson looked out the window of his house in South Queensferry to look at the beautiful scenery around the Forth Railway Bridge, an area which is no stranger to UFO sightings.

He saw a ‘flying saucer’ hovering just above the bridge for about 15 minutes. Mr Farquharson was convinced that the craft was studying the railway line before it flew away.

9. Abduction of ten-year-old girl

In 1976, a ten-year-old girl known as ‘Karen’ from the village of Meigle claims she was abducted by aliens in woods near her home. She says she saw some strange blue creatures before she was lifted up into a spacecraft and examined. Karen eventually returned home hours later.

8. Globe of fire

In the early hours of January 6, 1992, farmer Arthur Moar claims to have seen something incredible near his home on a remote part of Shetland.

Mr Moar was going about his daily business when a bright light outside his home drew his attention. Around 30 or 40 yards away, he saw a flaming ball which he recognised as a globe of the earth, complete with continents.

7. Andrew Cherry

The story of Andrew Cherry is well-known amongst UFO investigators as it is one of Scotland’s first documented sightings of an unexplained ‘spacecraft’. At 5.30am on a July morning in 1947, Mr Cherry was waiting at a bus stop in Edinburgh as he prepared to go to his work.

He noticed a disc-shaped object with a window around 300 feet in the air. Mr Cherry could clearly see an ‘alien’ wearing dark clothes and operating a control panel. When Ron interviewed Mr Cherry in 1994, he said "after all this time I still have chills running through my body".

6. “Tattie Howkers”

In the 1950s, a number of farm workers known as "tattie howkers" were returning home in the back of a lorry along the Musselburgh to Edinburgh road when they were followed by a UFO for about five to ten minutes, terrifying everyone inside.

Several witnesses saw the bizarre object before it flew away at great speed. Police later investigated the incident.

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