Livingston, Scotland (9-9-1979)
From The Black Vault Encyclopedia Project
Robert Taylor, a forester from West Lothian, Scotland, encountered a strange object and equally strange smaller objects or "entities". The rounded larger object, 20 feet in diameter, hovered above the ground. Then, two small objects, which were round but had appendages, "rushed" toward him. These objects each attached itself to one (each) of his trouser legs and tugged him towards the larger object, at which time Taylor lost consciousness. Ground marks were discovered at the scene of the encounter.
Contents |
Case Briefing
By APRO, July 1980
The February 1980 (Vol. 28, #8) issue of the Bulletin contained a preliminary report on the alleged encounter of a West Lothian, Scotland forester with a strange object and equally strange smaller objects or "entities". The "happening" took place on November 9, 1979, and the following is the information gleaned from additional clippings and mainly from the Journal of Transient Aerial Phenomena, Vol.1, No.2, March, 1980. Strangely enough, the article was written by Stuart Campbell, the architect who initially identified the object(s) as manisfestation(s) of ball lightning. However, it does seem that Mr. Campbell is being fairly objective, and the following are the "gleanings". We refer the readers to the February, 1980 (Vol. 28, #8) issue of the Bulletin to save space and repetition.
Robert Taylor, forester, (sixteen years tenure with the Livingston Development Corporation) and now a foreman, left his home in Lothian at 1000 GMT in a Forestry Department van, to inspect young trees to the North of the town near highway M8. As he could not drive the van all the way due to the density of trees, he left it on the side of the roadway and proceeded on foot.
Mr. Taylor, accompanied by his dog—walked the rest of the way, and at about 10:15 he rounded a corner in the forest path ( 100 meters from the road but out of sight of it) and came upon a strange sight.
Before him was a rounded object with a rim-like appendage (according to Journal of Transient Aerial Phenomena) not unlike a circular platform (see drawing, reproduced from JTAP, artist not identified).
At first the smaller objects were not in evidence, according to Taylor. The larger object was hovering above the ground, neither moving nor making any sound. The "thing" was dark grey with a texture similar to that of sand-paper. It appeared to become transparent in one area or another, seemingly, to Taylor, to "camouflage" itself. The "craft" was estimated to be twenty feet (six meters) in diameter.
Taylor said he stood, amazed, and stared at the object, then two small objects (apparently coming from under the large object) "rushed" toward him. They had a color and texture similar to that of the "parent" object, but were outfitted with appendages (see figure 1). They rolled on a horizontal axis and made a "plopping" noise as the "legs" made contact with the ground.
Upon reaching him, these objects each attached itself to one (each) of his trouser legs, just below the pockets on the sides. Taylor felt them tug him toward the large object and at the same time, he said, he was nearly suffocated by a strong acrid smell which he compared with that of burning automobile brake linings and which he felt came from the "things".
Taylor became aware that he was being dragged forward and his boots were scraping on the ground, before he lost consciousness, and fell forward and laid face downwards.
When Taylor regained consciousness, the objects were gone, but his dog was with him. He tried to speak to her but found he had lost his voice. He tried to stand but his legs would not support him, so he crawled approximately 90 meters (300 ft.) back up the trail toward his van, and then unsteadily half crawled and half staggered the rest of the 430 meters to his van. There, he attempted to contact his headquarters via two-way radio but was unsuccessful because of his voice.
Taylor then attempted to back the van up the track but unfortunately he ran off the track onto soft ground and could not get it out. Using short cuts through woods and fields, he walked the remaining 1600 meters back to his home, arriving at 11:30 a.m. During his walk between his van and his home his voice returned.
Upon seeing her husband's state when he arrived home, Mrs. Taylor assumed he had been attacked and started to call the police, but Taylor stopped her and had her call Mr. Malcolm Drummond, the head of the Forestry Department and his superior. Drummond immediately went to the Taylor residence and he and Taylor went back to the scene of the encounter where they found strange holes in the ground which Taylor said had not been there before that morning. Mrs. Taylor had noticed some unaccountable tears in his trousers in the areas where Taylor claimed the small objects had attached themselves.
Mr. Taylor was later examined by his Doctor who found only a "grase" (scrape?) on his chin and on his thigh. The Doctor sent him to the Bangour hospital for a skull X-ray but Taylor checked himself out before this was accomplished. (Editor's note: This may strike some readers as odd, but if Scottish hospitals are anything like American ones, any tests except for those required in dire emergencies, are only undertaken on weekdays and it is possible Taylor didn't relish a hospital stay over the weekend for an X-ray, especially if he had no pain in his head, and so far the reports do not indicate that he did).
The following excerpts were taken from the "Journal of Transient Aerial Phenomena" with their permission:
"The ground marks (see Figure 3) were of two types. First, there were two isolated ladder type "tracks" about 2.5 m long and the same distance apart. Each "rung" of the ladder (see Photograph 1), was 2 or 3 cm wide and deep, and about 30 cm long, and the area of grass between each "rung" was evenly flattened, but not as deeply as the "rungs". Although the "tracks" appear to be impressions made by a heavy object, the indentations were only in the grass; they did not alter the ground profile under the grass as they would have done if subjected to a heavy weight. The grass blades were each folded and formed to follow the outline of a rectangular indentations."
"Secondly there were 40 holes surrounding the "tracks", as shown in Figure 3. These holes all exposed fresh earth and were tapered from a maximum width of about 10cm, but at an angle as shown, The angle was fairly shallow; about 30° to the horizontal. A remarkable feature was the fact that the direction of the angle of the holes was consistent and always in line with the next hole in line. Two distinct and related sets of holes can be detected, and it is clear that one set of holes proceeds clock-wise, while the other proceeds anticlock-wise, and that they are in tandem between the "tracks". In some cases, blades of grass surrounding the edge of a hole were sheared off."
"No grass was scorched. The marks were measured and recorded by the local police the same day, and the area fenced off by the Forestry Department. The marks were photographed by Alastair Sutherland (a friend of a member of the Forestry Department) and by me, the following day."
"Robert Taylor's clothes (including the trousers) were taken by the police for forensic examination. Only the trousers and his long underpants showed anything unusual.Figure 4 and 5 show the tears on each leg of the trousers, which are made of navy blue serge. The right leg tear is about 65cm up from the bottom of the leg, while the left tear is about 76cm up."
Newspaper Headlines About This Case
"I'm after the aliens that beat up Bob"
Edinburgh Evening News, Nov. 9, 2004
By GARETH EDWARDS
IT was a terrifying close encounter which led to the only case in British history of an alien sighting being the subject of a criminal investigation.
Exactly 25 years later, the case is still open on forestry worker Bob Taylor’s brush with mysterious alien spheres on Dechmont Law.
Now, on the anniversary of the event, UFO enthusiasts are set to descend on the site, to show that the truth really is out there.
They have arranged to visit the site today to meditate in silence at the exact time of Mr Taylor’s encounter.
The event has been organised by paranormal investigator Ron Halliday, chairman of Scottish Earth Mysteries Research, who believes the encounter to be one of the most significant events in the history of ufology.
It is certainly one of the best- documented, and to this day defies rational explanation.
On November 9, 1979, at around 10.30am, Mr Taylor, then a forestry worker employed by the Livingston Development Corporation, parked his truck at the bottom of Dechmont Law.
He walked up the lower slope of the hill with his dog, and as he emerged into a clearing saw a large, circular, sphere-like object about 20 feet across.
Mr Taylor said it appeared to be made from a dark metallic material with a rough texture like sandpaper.
As he approached the object, two spheres, each about three feet wide with protruding metal spikes like old naval mines, dropped from the object.
The two spheres rolled towards him and despite his dog barking furiously, attached themselves to his trousers. There was an acrid smell that caused him to choke and he felt a sensation of being grabbed by the side of the legs and tugged forward.
The next thing Mr Taylor remembered was waking up with his head pounding, a sore throat, and a bitter taste in his mouth. He later calculated that he had been unconscious for at least 20 minutes.
"I was completely devastated afterwards," he recalled. "I couldn’t walk and the doctor came to look at me. We went back with the police and found all these marks where it had been."
The police found unusual indentations in the ground, ladder-shaped marks where the craft was said to have stood, and marks following the path of the mine-like objects.
They said they were "completely baffled" by the incident, which was treated as an assault.
Now 87, Mr Taylor moved away from the area after the event, but on the eve of the anniversary he revealed it was still in his thoughts.
"I stand by every word of my account of the incident," he said.
"I told it as it happened and it’s as clear as yesterday. It is the most amazing thing that ever happened to me.
"I know what I saw and it looked like a spaceship, a huge flying dome. I’m not surprised there has been so much interest in it over the years as it was such an incredible thing to happen."
Mr Halliday believes going back to the site on the anniversary could yield some clues to the nature of the encounter, and has not ruled out the possibility of once again making contact.
"We want to go back to the site to mark this anniversary and perhaps by being there we will be able to make contact again with whatever it was Bob Taylor saw," he said.
"It is possible that this was something from another dimension which for a short period of time appeared in our world. That fits with what Taylor saw, as he said the object appeared solid but at brief moments was shimmering and partially transparent.
"Even sceptics believe he is telling the truth about what he saw, and no explanation has been given to what it could have been."
Mr Taylor’s encounter took place on the edge of the area known as the Falkirk triangle, one of the most "visited" UFO hotspots in the world. Around 300 UFOs are seen in Scotland each year, the highest concentration of UFO sightings on the planet.
Robert Taylor, a possible victim of alien abduction, died on March 14th, aged 88
Obituary - article on the passing of Bob Taylor, and the story of his encounter.
The Economist, March 29, 2007
WHAT was it about Bob Taylor? He was an unassuming man, steady, phlegmatic, with a thick brush of white hair and a craggy outdoorsman's face. He liked a pint, and a dram too, but not when he was working. He smoked, but not too many. In his house at the edge of Dechmont Woods near Livingston in West Lothian, where he had worked all his life as a forester, there were very few books. And certainly there was none that could explain what happened to him on November 9th 1979, and why his trousers, of thick navy serge like a policeman's and with useful pockets in the sides, should have ended up in the archives of the British UFO Research Association.
Mr Taylor set off that morning, with his red setter Lara, to check the woods on Dechmont Law for stray sheep and cattle. It was a damp day and, after he had parked the van and set off down the forest track, even the noise of the Edinburgh-Glasgow motorway was muffled by thick, dark fir trees. The dog ran, and Mr Taylor's trudging wellingtons made the only sound. Then he turned a corner into a clearing filled with light, and saw it.
It was a “flying dome”, 20 feet wide, hovering above the grass. No sound came from the object, and it did not move. It seemed to be made of grey metal, shiny but rough, like emery paper. About half-way down it had a circular platform, like the brim of a hat, set with small propellers. There were darker areas on it that might have been portholes, but the strangest thing was that the dome would be solid one moment, transparent the next, so that Mr Taylor could see the fir trees through it, as if it was trying to camouflage itself.
Both he and the dog stood stock-still with surprise. But then, suddenly, two smaller spheres dropped out of the dome and came trundling across the grass, one to his right, one to his left. They were covered in long spikes, like navy mines, that made a ghastly sucking sound as they dug in and out of the mud. They grabbed his trousers, one on the right leg, one on the left, ripping right through to his winter long johns, and giving off a foul choking smell like burning brakes. Mr Taylor felt himself being pulled towards the craft; then he blacked out. When he came to, the visitors had gone.
So far, so impressive a story to explain a dishevelled homecoming on a Saturday night. But it was in mid-week and at midday that Mr Taylor crawled home, with the dog but without the van, with a graze on his chin and his trousers torn, covered in mud and with a thumping headache. His wife called a doctor and the police. Mr Taylor felt no need for the doctor, and after two days of a wild, craving thirst and the weird brake smell, he felt fine. But he took the police to the scene.
And there was the evidence. A large circle and inner “ladder” marks, which had flattened the grass but not dented the ground, as if a heavy craft had hovered but not landed. Forty little round holes, leaving the circle clockwise and anticlockwise, as if spiky “mines” had indeed rolled out of it. But no track entering or leaving the clearing, making the machine's arrival impossible unless it was a helicopter or something dropped by a mobile crane; and nothing of that sort had been seen in the area that day or the day before.
Lights over Livingston
The detective sergeant in charge of the case did not believe in space visitors. Mr Taylor's boss at the Forestry Department did not believe either, and thought it was probably some secret device being tested by the government. UFO debunkers thought Mr Taylor might have seen a magnified image of Venus distorted by the earth's atmosphere, which had made him fall down in an epileptic fit. The press came; and by the time the story reached Edinburgh, it was “small furry creatures” that had poured from the spacecraft to attack him. “I know what I saw,” said Mr Taylor. So doughtily and drily did he stick to his tale (and kept a camera with him ever after, to take the aliens' pictures if they ever came for him again) that the police opened a criminal investigation for assault, the only one in Britain to arise from a UFO “sighting”. It remains open.
Mr Taylor's neighbours proving much more sceptical, he eventually moved away to an undisclosed address. But he also became the most famous “witness” to aliens in Britain. His trousers were taken to spiritualist meetings to be analysed by psychics (“I feel pain from these trousers”), and on anniversaries of the sighting UFO-spotters would gather in the clearing, just on the off-chance.
The aliens, meanwhile, did not give up. Since that November day they have filled the skies of West Lothian with glimmering discs, strange lights and bouncing balls of fire. The “Falkirk Triangle” now registers more UFO sightings, around 300 a year, than any other spot on Earth. A good many happen outside the Forge restaurant in Bonnybridge, where fireballs sail over the trees and “wingless planes” are seen in the fields. Some experts say West Lothian may be a “thin place”, offering a window from the Earth into another dimension; others say the sightings are linked to the lack of jobs locally, and cheap liquor. But some know the aliens are just looking for Bob Taylor, or his dog, or his van, in the place where they last saw him, suddenly amazing them in a clearing among the trees.
The Livingston Encounter
By John Spencer, 1991
At approximately 10.15 in the morning on friday, 9 november 1979 forester robert taylor, a 61-year-old local inhabitant of livingston, scotland, encountered a ufo and entities of the most extraordinary nature.
With his dog, taylor drove in his pick-up truck to inspect young forest trees in an area just off the m8 motorway which connects edinburgh to glasgow. he stopped the pick-up and walked to the site he wanted to inspect; as he rounded a corner he was astonished to see what was hovering in the clearing ahead of him.
The object was approximately 20 feet (6 metres) wide and 12 feet (3.65 metres) high, globular for the most part but surrounded by a flange similar to the brim of a hat. protruding upward from the 'hat' were what appeared to be motionless propellers placed around the rim. behind them and on the main body of the object appeared to be the outline of portholes or at least somewhat different coloured patches. beneath the rim the object was slightly darker and the witness got the impression that the object may have been trying to camouflage itself by hazing in and out of solidity. the witness was uncertain whether the object itself was transparent or reflective but got the impression that its normal colour was of a dull grey and had a texture of a rough sandpaper. the real shocks were yet to come!
Just seconds after first seeing the object, two small, spiked spheres either dropped down from it or rushed from behind it, rolling across the ground on extended spikes towards taylor. they were approximately 3 feet (91 cm) wide and also a dull grey, similar to the main craft. as they reached him, the spheres, one on each side, attached themselves to his legs and he felt himself being dragged towards the object. he was overwhelmed by an acrid smell and lost consciousness.
When he came to, the objects were gone and his dog was racing around him in an agitated state. taylor himself had apparently lost his voice and was unable to stand comfortably. he was forced to crawl some 90 yards (82 metres) back to his pick-up truck but shortly ran it into soft mud in his desperation to leave the area and consequently had to walk home. for hours afterwards he had a headache and a thirst which lasted for two days.
Subsequent investigation of the site showed ground markings which correlated to the spikes on the small spherical objects where they had apparently churned up the grass. of particular importance was the damage to his trousers; they were of a heavy blue serge but were torn on each leg where, apparently, the spherical objects had attached themselves. the tears were upwards, suggesting that they had been formed by dragging him forwards and were investigated by the british ufo research association who currently hold the trousers for any further forensic examination that can be undertaken.
Of the witness himself, taylor is described as honest and responsible and not the sort of person to play jokes. with perhaps some difficulty he now believes he saw an extraterrestrial craft and robots. for a while he carried a camera in case he should encounter them again. investigation into his personal circumstances revealed a man who drank very little alcohol, was of generally good health and with no significant history of head injury or suffering from headaches or blackouts. according to the investigator his hearing is good and he wears glasses only for reading.
... The very thorough investigation by steuart campbell suggests that the ground traces and physical evidence which was found gave little support to the contention that there were no physical objects present at all.
On the other hand, the investigation also suggested that it was unlikely that the object was man-made since there appeared to be no likely manufacturer in the proximity. in any case, flying such an object to the clearing would almost certainly have come to the attention of somebody on the m8 motorway which is a most frequently used one in scotland. although very close to the motorway the encounter itself could not have been seen since the trees would have obscured the view of the site. however, any flight path into the clearing would have been seen, yet there are no corroborative reports. did the object emerge in the clearing in some other way...?
Credits
Special thanks to The Economist & APRO.
