NUFORC Sighting 15620

Occurred: 2000-12-27 19:15 Local
Reported: 2000-12-29 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 3 minutes
No of observers: 6

Location: Ballater, Aberdeenshire (UK/Scotland), , United Kingdom

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object, Emitted beams

Triangular Craft hovering above the trees at the roadside 5 miles from Queens summer residence, Balmoral Castle, Royal Deeside Scotland

I was driving from Braemar, heading for Aberdeen last night with my boyfriend ((name deleted)). There is a bypass just before Ballater which lets you miss going all the way through the village. At about 7.15pm, 400 yards or so from the bypass turn off, both Peter and I looked up to our left and saw an object in the sky. It was triangular, looked to be grey in colour and its predominant feature was that it had 3 large blue lights at each point (but not on the very tips). These lights were not flickering or flashing and did not appear to emit any beams as such. It also looked as if there were white/grey laser beams coming out from the opposite side of the object (to the blue lights) however, it may have been the 'top' of the object lit up by more lights. The object looked to be about the size of a house. I have been calling it an object but it definately was some kind of aircraft as it was hovering maybe 200 yards above the trees to the side of the road. I could hear what seemed to be a helicopter, however, if the helicopter had been overhead, it would have been much noisier and what I heard was a muted rotor sound. There was no sign of any other aircraft such as a helicopter nearby. When I heard this noise I assumed that it must be a helicopter because of the relative proximity that this craft would have been to Balmoral Castle (7 miles approx). I believe that the airspace around the castle is restricted and that it is monitored so if there are any unauthorised aircraft in or nearby this area, the airforce scramble jets etc to investigate. There were no jets which I found strange but perhaps it was outside the restriction zone. We pulled in to the side of the road just after the bypass and ((name deleted)) got out walking back to see if he could still see the craft. I also got out of the car but by the time I did the craft was gone. ((name deleted)) said that it was still there for a moment when he got out of the car but started to move slowly then 'just disappeared', no speed trails or anything like that. When I'd got out of the car and looked in the direction towards the bypass where we has seen the object, I noticed that another vehicle had stopped in the entrance to the bypass going the opposite way. The vehicle started to move off and stopped beside ((name deleted)). It then drove off. There was also another vehicle behind this one which had stopped and drove off the other way. When the vehicle passed me, it was the police and the other vehicle was also the police. The van which had stopped to talk to ((name deleted)) had two policemen in it, and they asked if ((name deleted)) was okay. ((name deleted)) asked the driver, 'did you see that?' to which the passenger replied after looking sideways at the driver, 'yes he did'. They rolled up their window and drove away. ((name deleted)) and I then turned the car around and headed back the way we had come to see if we could see the craft again, but it was gone. We checked our watches and we had not lost any time, the whole encounter lasted probably 3 minutes. We both feel so lucky to have witnessed what we did. The craft was either one of two things, a secret military aircraft whcih has big blue lights on the bottom, hovers and sound a bit like a helicopter or it was a spacecraft. All in all there were ((name deleted)), myself, the two policemen and also 1 or 2 policemn in the other van that saw this. The place which this happened is right next to a hotel complex called the Craigendarroch and just outside the village of Ballater. There may have been many more people who saw it.

Posted 2001-01-03