Welsh UFO sightings from 1976. For sightings from other years please click HERE.
SUFON
1976
Gorseinon, Swansea
Late night, clear sky.
Irene was 14 years old and living in a children's home on a housing estate in Penyrheol, Gorseinon (Gower View Road?) She saw an object through her bedroom window which she described as a hovering semi-circle of very bright white light. The home was in an elevated position and her window looked towards the bank of the River Loughor and she was transfixed and felt scared by the object. She watched it for about 10-15 minutes when suddenly the room went dark as the object disappeared. She found it difficult to speak to adults at the time and didn't tell anyone about her sighting.
She said she doesn't remember any noise from the object but it seemed to just disappear and from being very bright one second to being very dark the next.
Source: SUFON FILES - witness submission on website, January 2021.
BUFORA
March 28th - 30th
North Wales
Whilst on holiday, 28-30 March, the witness saw several, discs performing complex movements in the sky over Mt Snowdon. The objects reflected the sunlight, giving the impression they were metallic. A photograph was taken and the results are awaited from the Photographic Department.
Listed in BUFORA V5/N5 as C1b and C3b 'metallic discs', investigated by N. Stephenson.
March, 19:30
Holywell, Flintshire
The witness then 40 yrs old, had her son with her who was in his 30’s at the time of the report a few years ago. She tried to persuade him to corroborate this, but he emphatically said he would deny all knowledge of it, although he remembered it vividly. They were standing waiting for a bus on a pavement in an exposed position near the sea. No houses or trees were near the bus stop. An object, which was greyish black with eight portholes, came low down from the sea and stood over them. The mother and son were scared stiff; they had nowhere to run. There was a strong sea breeze blowing, but the object just stood silent and still over them. They could feel strong telepathic messages beating into their brains that there were some very unhappy and unwilling human beings in the craft who had been abducted. They actively gave back messages that they had no intention of being forced into joining them.
Fry, Margaret-Ellen. LINK TO THE STARS (p. 89). Unknown. Kindle Edition.
BUFORA
April 14th
There were seven children who were witnesses to the event. According to the one they were playing in the local park and then decided to go for a walk which took them past a field. One of the children said: "There was something in the field out of the ordinary, I have never seen anything like it in my life before, the most astonishing thing about it was the colour which was a brilliant green and silver, the shape of it was like a round football, it moved at all angles, backwards and forwards and from left to right. As we moved it moved as well, for example if we moved to the left so did this thing. We then ran as fast as we could, we did not hesitate but kept on running with fright."
From an article by Brendan Taylor in BUFORA Bulletin N20, January 1986.
PRESS
June 8th
St. Ishmaels
An object hit the sea off St. Ishmaels, at St. Donats Holiday Park, 200 yards from a beach packed with holidaymakers. The beach is on the opposite side of the Gwendraeth Estuary to the Pembrey rocket range.
Eyewitness, Gwyn Maddox, site manager at the holiday park, said he saw the object hit the water near a bank of the Gwnedraeth Estuary.
"There wasn't much of an explosion, just a sharp report when the missile hit the water. I was on the phone to the RAF to complain about this as soon as the missile hit the water, because another 100 yards or so and it would have been close to where people use the beach. In this case the plane was quite off target."
Planes from RAF Brawdy use the land target area as a firing range. An RAF officer visited the site and took measurements, and an investigation was undertaken, but the RAF were mystified as all their ordnance had been accounted for and nothing was missing from any of their aircraft. They were not sure what the object was. Other air bases used the range.
Carmarthen MP Gwynfor Evans demanded a full investigation. After a full investigation the RAF repeated their confirmation that all their missiles had been accounted for.
Source: Western Mail, 10th and 11th June 1976.
28th June
Snowdon
Brian Guiver, of Wallington, Surrey was on holiday and was driving down the A4086 south-east from Llanrug to Cwm-Y-Glo:
'We had Mount Snowdon in view. It was while looking at Snowdon that I spotted a large black object in the sky. It was moving towards the peak of Snowdon, from the mountain to the left of Snowdon's peak [Glyder Fawr]. I said, "What's that?" I saw it for about ten seconds, before a hill on the right blocked it from sight.'
Source: 'The Welsh Triangle' Peter Paget 1979 page 20.
30th June
Snowdon
Two days after his sighting on 28 June, Brian Guiver of Surrey, on holiday in Snowdonia, was climbing Snowdon and looking at birds in the sky.
'I suddenly saw three objects flying in formation at about 2000 feet. They were zig-zagging all over the place, but still keeping in formation all the time at quite a speed. When the sunlight hit one of the objects as it turned, I could see the bottom of it and the outside was silver and the inside a primrose colour. It was just like a saucer in shape. After keeping watch for about ten seconds or so, I took a photograph of them in the distance but it did not come out.'
Source: 'The Welsh Triangle' Peter Paget 1979 page 20. Guiver originally sent the sighting into Paget's Fountain Journal #5:
BUFORA
July 18th, 06:00
Carreg, Clwyd
C & J Bord submitted this sighting to BUFORA V6/N6, listing it as a "gold fireball" (C4c).
MOD FILES
July
Sennybridge Range
July / August
Oakenholt, Flint
Nine year old Gaynor Sunderland was cycling down a local country lane when a silvery glint caught her eye. Hiding in a ditch she watched as a strange looking man in a silver suit stepped out of a spacecraft shaped like a huge cigar. The 'man' carried a kind of ray gun that created craters in the ground - these were then inspected by a female being who joined him. At one point Gaynor accidentally snapped a nearby twig, which caused the creatures to notice her. They seemed friendly however, and Gaynor watched as they simply returned to their craft and took off into the sky.
Gaynor's brother Darren happened to be walking along the same road when he saw what looked "like a spacecraft about 25 feet high resting on four tall, thin legs". Surrounding the craft were a number of strange men in green trousers and silvery pullovers with prominent teeth, bald heads, and only three fingers and a thumb. Realising they had spotted him, Darren ran home in fright.
This sighting was to spark one of the most contentious episodes in UK UFO history - it'll be getting its own blog post in due course. The extremely short version is that Marion Sunderland, Gaynor's mother, began contacting Ufologists in an attempt to explain her children's sightings. This lead to her meeting Jenny Randles who wrote a straightforward UFO account book (Alien Contact, 1982) covering Gaynor's ongoing close encounters. It also lead to her meeting Andrew Collins, Graham Phillips and Martin Keatman, and becoming an integral part of the psychic quest for both the Green Stone and the Meonia Sword... As for this sighting specifically, in later life Gaynor denied she had ever seen anything unusual at all.
CONTACT
8th August
Mountains near Gwynedd
A holidaying couple took a serios of photographs of mountain scenery. On these being developed, one of the photographs showed a white cigar-shaped object that seemed to be positioned over ono of the mountains. This object was not seen by either witness at the time the relevant photograph was actually snapped. Later, detailed analysis revealed that the cigar-shaped effect was almost certainly caused by a deposit on the emulsion of the film.
This case is included here to show that in-depth studies are accorded reports that, on the surface at least, appear to be valid ufo sightings but which, upon stringent investigation (in this instance photographic analysis), can sometimes be proved to be no more than pseudo-ufos. (Awareness V6/N3)
SUFON
Summer 1976
Bishopston, Gower
Fine sunny day. Richard Thomas from Morriston was about 11 to 13 at the time and thinks it may have been in 1976 or 1977 (born in 1963).
He was visiting his auntie who lived off Bishopston Road in Bishopston. He often stayed with her during the long summer holiday. Her house was located at the end of a short lane opposite the Spar shop in the village. The house backed on to a field known as Leighton Jones's field (or Carnival Field) which is on the west side of Bishopston Road. One summer's day Richard was in the field, just on the other side of his auntie's garden fence. He was alone and he can't remember there being any animals in the field.
He was looking west down the field and towards the Bishopston Valley when a movement caught his eye. He watched as an orange-yellow ball, about the size of a beach ball, 18 inches in diameter moved, inches above the ground, across the field from his right to left (NNE to SSE) about 30 yards away in the middle of the field. It seemed to have a spikey, serrated edge to it and the orange-yellow colours were slowly swirling as it moved. It moved gently and slowly on a straight and even course from the direction of St. Teilo's Church, straight across the field towards Wellfield Road, the road to the south.
There was no sound or smell associated with the object but Richard could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He said it was 'a lovely thing to see' and he stood transfixed to the spot while it gently continued across the field, taking about a minute to get to the other side, when it simply disappeared through the hedge and out of sight. He told his auntie about it but 'felt silly'.
Source: SUFON Files - Richard Thomas interviewed by Emlyn Williams, 14th May 2017.
NUFORC
15th September, night
Llanelli
"Cuboid app. 15 ft - non reflective matt colour, with red, blue, yellow lights with polymorphic abilities. Cuboid with half hemispheres (like domes) one on each side, we only saw three faces, left, lower, and right due to being almost underneath it. It resonated when it moved, about 5 mph. It followed the electricity wires, and hung by a similar matt black attachment from a void above it, like a rip in the sky but with soft edges. The cuboids didn't halt when it got to the steelwork of the pylon, it passed through it and retained its shape. We got freaked out at that. Then it noticed us and then stopped for about five seconds, hovering perfectly still, with no noise. It was watching us. We felt as though it had registered us and then continued to go on along the grid over the housing estate at a height of about seventy five feet. Remarkably, no one saw it that night. I was 7 years old, and no one would listen to me. Me and my step brother kind of just looked at each other with bemusement. But it has caused severe problems with my relationships. I feel totally alienated from humanity..... and abandoned by that whatever it was. It just went off like we just didn't matter."
Duration of sighting: 20 seconds.
Source: www.ufo-hunters.com citing NUFORC report - reported by witness 8 August 1999.
BUFORA
September / October, afternoon
Burry Port, South Wales
Sighting of a "silver hovering object" reported to BUFORA V6/N1 by investigator Randall Jones-Pugh.
BUFORA
October, 19:30-20:00
Talgarreg, Dyfed
The witness and a friend were out shooting foxes, when his friend looked up and saw what appeared to be a very slow moving star, which then disappeared, only to reappear again. After watching a little longer it disappeared for good, and then the witness observed another 'moving star' to the right of the first one, which turned at 45 deg three or four times until it disappeared.
Reported in BUFORA V6/N4 by investigator Randall Jones-Pugh.
BUFORA
November 13th, 12:20
Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire
Randall Jones-Pugh reported two separate sightings of an "inverted cone" to BUFORA V5/N6.
BOOK
Friday November 19th, 17:20
Llanerch, Llanelli
At 5:20 PM, a sixteen-year-old youth, Brian Jones of Llanerch, Llanelli (see Nov 1973), had observed a very bright white light moving slowly above his district. “It varied i brightness as it moved. I realized that what I was looking at was definitely not an aeroplane, a helicopter, or any other aircraft, because it travelled low and made no noise. I began to get so excited about the object that I ran to my house, and as I came to our side entrance I looked up behind my shoulder and there, closer to where I was standing, I saw that the light had brightened to a yellowish, round fireball with, underneath, a bright emission of sparks. As I was excited and a little frightened about it, I ran in at our backdoor and told my mother about the light, for her to see it. But when she came outside, it had completely disappeared.”
From Peter Paget's The Welsh Triangle.
BUFORA
November 23rd, 10:00
Milford Haven, Pembrokshire
Randall Jones-Pugh reported three separate sightings of a "metallic rectangular object" (C4b) to BUFORA V5/N6.
PRESS
Featured in BUFORA V6/N1, investigated by Randall Jones-Pugh.
Sunday 12th December
Cwmbran
Tony Heare of Pontypool:
"I saw a blue/white light at the front of an object with a red/orange light flashing directly above and three or four blue/white lights behind the first. It gave the impression of being vaguely similar to the size of a single decker bus. No noise was audible at all. A car moved off nearby, but soon all was quiet again. The object was seen from the car park of Llandegweth Reservoir, facing towards Newport. The object travelled on a seemingly straight line. It reached a mountain to our right, seeming to hover, then turned on its axis and travelled back towards our left. We hardly needed to look up to see the object. It appeared to be over somewhere between Cwmbran and Newport a distance from us of about two miles. The weather was cloudy, but the object was definitely below cloud cover. There was no haze or fog present. The speed of the object was very slow indeed, comparable to that of a helicopter or small plane, but no noise was audible. I have not notified the police or any local authority about my sighting.
Source: UFO-UK Peter Paget 1980.
19th December
Haverfordwest
Mark Jones (12) and his friend Glen Evans were walking to their youth club when they saw a woman looking up at something over the Welsh National Water Development Authority Offices in Haverfordwest.
"I looked as well and saw an object like two saucers together, divided by a yellow and green line. At first Glen could not see it. Then when he did we both ran over to tell his father. I saw it again, but the next time we looked round it had disappeared. But it was definitely there. I must have seen it for at least a minute."
They both ran and immediately reported their sighting to the local police.
Source: 'The Welsh Triangle' Peter Paget pages 52-53.
For more like this please click the image below:
July / August
Oakenholt, Flint
Nine year old Gaynor Sunderland was cycling down a local country lane when a silvery glint caught her eye. Hiding in a ditch she watched as a strange looking man in a silver suit stepped out of a spacecraft shaped like a huge cigar. The 'man' carried a kind of ray gun that created craters in the ground - these were then inspected by a female being who joined him. At one point Gaynor accidentally snapped a nearby twig, which caused the creatures to notice her. They seemed friendly however, and Gaynor watched as they simply returned to their craft and took off into the sky.
Gaynor's brother Darren happened to be walking along the same road when he saw what looked "like a spacecraft about 25 feet high resting on four tall, thin legs". Surrounding the craft were a number of strange men in green trousers and silvery pullovers with prominent teeth, bald heads, and only three fingers and a thumb. Realising they had spotted him, Darren ran home in fright.
This sighting was to spark one of the most contentious episodes in UK UFO history - it'll be getting its own blog post in due course. The extremely short version is that Marion Sunderland, Gaynor's mother, began contacting Ufologists in an attempt to explain her children's sightings. This lead to her meeting Jenny Randles who wrote a straightforward UFO account book (Alien Contact, 1982) covering Gaynor's ongoing close encounters. It also lead to her meeting Andrew Collins, Graham Phillips and Martin Keatman, and becoming an integral part of the psychic quest for both the Green Stone and the Meonia Sword... As for this sighting specifically, in later life Gaynor denied she had ever seen anything unusual at all.
CONTACT
8th August
Mountains near Gwynedd
A holidaying couple took a serios of photographs of mountain scenery. On these being developed, one of the photographs showed a white cigar-shaped object that seemed to be positioned over ono of the mountains. This object was not seen by either witness at the time the relevant photograph was actually snapped. Later, detailed analysis revealed that the cigar-shaped effect was almost certainly caused by a deposit on the emulsion of the film.
This case is included here to show that in-depth studies are accorded reports that, on the surface at least, appear to be valid ufo sightings but which, upon stringent investigation (in this instance photographic analysis), can sometimes be proved to be no more than pseudo-ufos. (Awareness V6/N3)
SUFON
Summer 1976
Bishopston, Gower
Fine sunny day. Richard Thomas from Morriston was about 11 to 13 at the time and thinks it may have been in 1976 or 1977 (born in 1963).
He was visiting his auntie who lived off Bishopston Road in Bishopston. He often stayed with her during the long summer holiday. Her house was located at the end of a short lane opposite the Spar shop in the village. The house backed on to a field known as Leighton Jones's field (or Carnival Field) which is on the west side of Bishopston Road. One summer's day Richard was in the field, just on the other side of his auntie's garden fence. He was alone and he can't remember there being any animals in the field.
He was looking west down the field and towards the Bishopston Valley when a movement caught his eye. He watched as an orange-yellow ball, about the size of a beach ball, 18 inches in diameter moved, inches above the ground, across the field from his right to left (NNE to SSE) about 30 yards away in the middle of the field. It seemed to have a spikey, serrated edge to it and the orange-yellow colours were slowly swirling as it moved. It moved gently and slowly on a straight and even course from the direction of St. Teilo's Church, straight across the field towards Wellfield Road, the road to the south.
There was no sound or smell associated with the object but Richard could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He said it was 'a lovely thing to see' and he stood transfixed to the spot while it gently continued across the field, taking about a minute to get to the other side, when it simply disappeared through the hedge and out of sight. He told his auntie about it but 'felt silly'.
Source: SUFON Files - Richard Thomas interviewed by Emlyn Williams, 14th May 2017.
NUFORC
15th September, night
Llanelli
"Cuboid app. 15 ft - non reflective matt colour, with red, blue, yellow lights with polymorphic abilities. Cuboid with half hemispheres (like domes) one on each side, we only saw three faces, left, lower, and right due to being almost underneath it. It resonated when it moved, about 5 mph. It followed the electricity wires, and hung by a similar matt black attachment from a void above it, like a rip in the sky but with soft edges. The cuboids didn't halt when it got to the steelwork of the pylon, it passed through it and retained its shape. We got freaked out at that. Then it noticed us and then stopped for about five seconds, hovering perfectly still, with no noise. It was watching us. We felt as though it had registered us and then continued to go on along the grid over the housing estate at a height of about seventy five feet. Remarkably, no one saw it that night. I was 7 years old, and no one would listen to me. Me and my step brother kind of just looked at each other with bemusement. But it has caused severe problems with my relationships. I feel totally alienated from humanity..... and abandoned by that whatever it was. It just went off like we just didn't matter."
Duration of sighting: 20 seconds.
Source: www.ufo-hunters.com citing NUFORC report - reported by witness 8 August 1999.
BUFORA
September / October, afternoon
Burry Port, South Wales
Sighting of a "silver hovering object" reported to BUFORA V6/N1 by investigator Randall Jones-Pugh.
This is perhaps linked to the two S. Wales sightings listed in BUFORA V8/N3, originating with CONTACT UK. They had 16:15 as the time of the sightings, with one being a "round yellow object" (C3b) and the other a "silver cylindrical object" (C3c).
BUFORA
October, 19:30-20:00
Talgarreg, Dyfed
The witness and a friend were out shooting foxes, when his friend looked up and saw what appeared to be a very slow moving star, which then disappeared, only to reappear again. After watching a little longer it disappeared for good, and then the witness observed another 'moving star' to the right of the first one, which turned at 45 deg three or four times until it disappeared.
Reported in BUFORA V6/N4 by investigator Randall Jones-Pugh.
BUFORA
November 13th, 12:20
Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire
Randall Jones-Pugh reported two separate sightings of an "inverted cone" to BUFORA V5/N6.
BOOK
Friday November 19th, 17:20
Llanerch, Llanelli
At 5:20 PM, a sixteen-year-old youth, Brian Jones of Llanerch, Llanelli (see Nov 1973), had observed a very bright white light moving slowly above his district. “It varied i brightness as it moved. I realized that what I was looking at was definitely not an aeroplane, a helicopter, or any other aircraft, because it travelled low and made no noise. I began to get so excited about the object that I ran to my house, and as I came to our side entrance I looked up behind my shoulder and there, closer to where I was standing, I saw that the light had brightened to a yellowish, round fireball with, underneath, a bright emission of sparks. As I was excited and a little frightened about it, I ran in at our backdoor and told my mother about the light, for her to see it. But when she came outside, it had completely disappeared.”
From Peter Paget's The Welsh Triangle.
BUFORA
November 23rd, 10:00
Milford Haven, Pembrokshire
Randall Jones-Pugh reported three separate sightings of a "metallic rectangular object" (C4b) to BUFORA V5/N6.
PRESS
November
Elan Valley
The County Times Express & Gazette of Powys, 27 November - via BUFORA V5/N6 - refers to a lorry driver with a load of steel near the Elan Valley, feeling 'scared to death' when he saw a cigar shaped thing belching orange and red flames. It was hovering above his vehicle, but when he stopped and got out, the object was moving away.
BUFORA
December 3rd, 12:30
Penarth
"Ball-shape: aura and light beams" (C4b) sighting reported to BUFORA V6/N1 by investigator Randall Jones-Pugh.
PRESS
7th December
Conwy
A married couple from Deganwy were driving from Llandudno to Deganwy when they spotted a brilliant white object hovering above the suspension bridge in Conwy. The man said:
"It was a brilliant ball of light directly above the bridge. It dropped something into the river and then drifted north-eat leaving a trail of smoke."
An official at RAF Valley said there were no RAF planes airborne at the time.
Source: 'UFO Magic in Motion' Arthur Shuttlewood 1979 pages 30-31 citing 'Weekly News' Thursday 9 December 1976.
BUFORA
December 9th, evening
Broad Haven
The County Times Express & Gazette of Powys, 27 November - via BUFORA V5/N6 - refers to a lorry driver with a load of steel near the Elan Valley, feeling 'scared to death' when he saw a cigar shaped thing belching orange and red flames. It was hovering above his vehicle, but when he stopped and got out, the object was moving away.
BUFORA
December 3rd, 12:30
Penarth
"Ball-shape: aura and light beams" (C4b) sighting reported to BUFORA V6/N1 by investigator Randall Jones-Pugh.
PRESS
7th December
Conwy
A married couple from Deganwy were driving from Llandudno to Deganwy when they spotted a brilliant white object hovering above the suspension bridge in Conwy. The man said:
"It was a brilliant ball of light directly above the bridge. It dropped something into the river and then drifted north-eat leaving a trail of smoke."
An official at RAF Valley said there were no RAF planes airborne at the time.
Source: 'UFO Magic in Motion' Arthur Shuttlewood 1979 pages 30-31 citing 'Weekly News' Thursday 9 December 1976.
BUFORA
December 9th, evening
Broad Haven
On the evening of 9 December 1976, Mrs Dorothy Cale was travelling from Broad Haven to Milford Haven with her l0-year-old son in a friend's car. It was a cold dry night with no moon. As they drove along the road between Walton West and Rosepool -a long lonely road - there appeared, very suddenly, a very bright flashing light above the left hand hedge. It was vaguely dome-shaped and as it flashed there seemed to be a zig-zag nucleus rather like an electric bulb filament.It gave a yellowish-white light which was so bright that it lit up the whole of the surrounding area and the sky above it. The driver stopped suddenly thinking they were going to run into something, but after it had flashed four times it disappeared. During the short time in which it was observed, the witnesses had the impression it was the top of something obscured by the hedge, which at this point was quite high. The size of the flashing object was estimated at about 5 or 6 feet across and 3 feet high and the distance above ground level at around 15-20 feet.
Featured in BUFORA V6/N1, investigated by Randall Jones-Pugh.
Sunday 12th December
Cwmbran
Tony Heare of Pontypool:
"I saw a blue/white light at the front of an object with a red/orange light flashing directly above and three or four blue/white lights behind the first. It gave the impression of being vaguely similar to the size of a single decker bus. No noise was audible at all. A car moved off nearby, but soon all was quiet again. The object was seen from the car park of Llandegweth Reservoir, facing towards Newport. The object travelled on a seemingly straight line. It reached a mountain to our right, seeming to hover, then turned on its axis and travelled back towards our left. We hardly needed to look up to see the object. It appeared to be over somewhere between Cwmbran and Newport a distance from us of about two miles. The weather was cloudy, but the object was definitely below cloud cover. There was no haze or fog present. The speed of the object was very slow indeed, comparable to that of a helicopter or small plane, but no noise was audible. I have not notified the police or any local authority about my sighting.
Source: UFO-UK Peter Paget 1980.
19th December
Haverfordwest
Mark Jones (12) and his friend Glen Evans were walking to their youth club when they saw a woman looking up at something over the Welsh National Water Development Authority Offices in Haverfordwest.
"I looked as well and saw an object like two saucers together, divided by a yellow and green line. At first Glen could not see it. Then when he did we both ran over to tell his father. I saw it again, but the next time we looked round it had disappeared. But it was definitely there. I must have seen it for at least a minute."
They both ran and immediately reported their sighting to the local police.
Source: 'The Welsh Triangle' Peter Paget pages 52-53.
