There are a number of threads covering this case but not any really laying out the full timeline, basic facts, and main witness testimony all in one place. Then of course, there is the different speculation that may point to a UFO crashing or landing in the Welsh mountains one dark winter night early in 1974.

There is a sceptical explanation from investigator, Andy Roberts. His conclusion was that a series of rare, natural events caused the loud explosions and strange pulsing lights over North Wales on January 23rd 1974.

But not everyone agrees with his conclusions. There are other accounts of the strange lights on the Berwyn mountains, an alleged British Army presence with roadblocks in the area, alien bodies recovered at the "crash" site, strange helicopter sightings, and visits to the surrounding villages by men-in-black (secret service agents). There is even a story, that the crashed UFO was accompanied by other craft that were submerged off the British Isles in the Irish Sea and flushed out of the sea by the Royal Navy and RAF.

But before we jump too far ahead let’s begin with a basic outline of events:

The Berwyn Mountain Range



The Berwyn Mountains lie in the North Wales region of Great Britain, a sparsely populated area around 30 miles from the major town of Wrexham and the English Border.

23rd January 1974

It is a dark, cold, windy, drizzly winter night in North Wales.


8:32pm - In the small North Wales towns of Llandrillo and Llanderfel, villagers hear a loud explosion and see strange lights streaking across the sky above the nearby Berwyn Mountainrange. Buildings shake, furniture moves, pets and livestock become audibly agitated. First thoughts are that something has crashed into the mountains. Early reports from a number of witnesses are of red and amber pulsing lights and an egg shaped craft flying past them. Many witnesses telephone the local police to report these strange events. The tremors are felt across the region in Wrexham, Cheshire, Wirral, Liverpool and even the Isle of Man.




One of the witnesses, Elfed Roberts, who was a police sergeant at the time of UFO incident, had driven rapidly towards Bala moments after the tremor, believing the local dam has been breached. On reaching Bala, Roberts, reports in to the local police station and then heads towards Llandrillo with Inspector Glyn Evans. They see a bright light south towards Cader Berwyn for a few seconds.



Elfed Roberts (2008)

As we were driving, all of a sudden we saw this green light in the sky ahead of us and it seemed to be an arcing light, but it was very sudden, totally unexpected, different to anything ever seen before. On arriving at Llandrillo many of the residents were outside in the streets with the consensus that something had crashed into the nearby mountain range.

A number of policemen then commandeered a land rover from the farmland home of, then 14 year old, Huw Lloyd to negotiate the difficult terrain. Directed to make a search of nearby Cader Bronwen they find nothing but an empty poacher’s vehicle parked up on the mountain road.

Pat Evans (1996)

9.40pm - Local nurse Pat Evans, from the close by village of Llandderfel, hears reports of a possible aircraft accident. She leaves home, accompanied by her two teenage daughters and makes the journey towards the mountains, in the belief she can assist and offer first aid to any survivors. She and her two daughters see a red/orange glow on the slope of Cader Berwyn a few miles to the left. Described as almost perfectly round and pulsating. They also see smaller lights lower down the mountain, flashing like fairy lights and moving in a zig-zag pattern towards the object. Pat at first assumes these are the lights from a rescue team. However, soon realising that no rescue team could have possibly been organised and also have arrived before her, she becomes totally confused, and leaves the scene to return home with her daughters. At one point she is politely stopped by a military patrol and then allowed to go on her way. * (according to differing testimony Pat Evans encountered no one else on the road)



The Gwynedd Police Constabulary Major Incident Log

Here is a sample of the calls recorded on The Gwynedd Police Constabulary Major Incident Log.

*The times are the logged time of the call/visit to the police not the time of the event being witnessed.


“21.10pm

Explosion. PC receiving 999 calls of UFO. A witness who saw an object on the hillside reported: 'Saw bright red light, like coal fire red. Large perfect circle. Like a big bonfire. Could see lights above and to the right and white lights moving to bottom. Light changed colour to yellowish white and back again.'

'There's been a large explosion in the area and there is a large fire in the mountainside. I am speaking from ... and can see the fire where I am.'

Telex message to chief constable Gwynedd constabulary.

22.00pm approx
Saw bright green lights, object with tail - travelling west. Saw about Bangor direction - dropped down.

At approx 10pm on 23/1/74: Saw a circular light in the sky at an estimated height of 1,500 feet. This object exploded and pieces fell to the ground. Mr xx.. estimates the pieces would have fallen into the (Irish) sea between Rhyl and Liverpool.



The Liverpool Daily Post of the 25th Jan 1974 reported that the officer in charge at the police incident HQ at Colwyn Bay….. “had checked with RAF Valley [Anglesey] and the air traffic control centre at Preston and had to treat the incident “as if a plane had crashed”. Within an hour “about ten” officers had began searching the Berwyn Mountains where lights had been reported, and emergency services were alerted. The police team was joined by an RAF mountain rescue group and teams of experts”.

Theories at the time were that a large meteorite had exploded or even an old WWII bomb had detonated. It was further reported that many people, especially in the Isle of Man, had seen an RAF night bombing exercise.

The possibility of finding a large meteorite drew in geologists to search the area, including staff and students from Leeds, Liverpool and Durham Universities, and various amateurs. RAF Canberra survey aircraft also photographed the area in the days that followed. Nothing was found to suggest anything had crashed into the mountains range. At least officially nothing was ever found. There were reports of a lot of military activity, roadblocks in the area and strange visitors to the surrounding villages questioning people on what they had seen. However, with investigations turning up nothing, the media’s interest waned and the story faded away.

continued in part 2

Originally posted by mirageman

In the early nineties, I was on holiday in that area staying at a chalet at a country holiday resort. Small town, quiet, lots of nature, streams, forest and fresh air.

The pics you posted above remind me of something I have seen in my life that completely baffled me.

An ORB of orange/white light, approximately 25-30 feet away travelling in silence left to right at speed and then dissappearing. Really freaked us out. I estimate it's size at about 1 foot in diameter. It was when we were walking out from the canopy of a large oak tree with foliage almost down to the ground and into a small clearing filled with bracken. It seemed like "it" was surprised to see us and made a quick escape. The fact that we BOTH saw it PROVES it wasn't just a personal illusion.

Something very strange goes on in Wales, and although I don't believe in Aliens, this one event tells me there are things that just can't be explained.

I don't mention it often except to those with open minds.

Thanks for posting and reminding me of this. I may do some more research and see if I can find the exact location. I tried once before but all that green looks the same from a satellite view. Could have been "Llandrillo" so I'll start there.

Maybe not directly linked to your article but interesting stuff all the same.

S&F for sure and SO NICE to read a decent thread that reminds me of why this site is here. Top notch.

Thanks for the thread, well written and nice images, did you animate those yourself? If so well done, it makes things clearer with good images to reference.

As a child, I grew up in Scotland and this reminds me of an encounter when I was a child that I partly recall, this would have been mid 70's and the UFO shape sounds similar, with the lights too, and an injured being. This was in South West Scotland, near MOD land. I have written about it on here but otherwise feel a bit uneasy talking about it, though it happened.

I used to read Fortean times, and these threads recently with retro encounters reminds me of reading these, good to see they are being remembered.

ETA I never knew about this incident in Wales, that I recall, though when I think of these things it brings a feeling of sort of being annoyed, that if these beings are visiting here, humanity should feel privileged. The encounter I recall, these beings are beautiful in ways so much greater than just physical, like radiating the most essential essence, if that makes sense, like Love, Light, Truth, Knowing. These visits should be sacred.

If the flying saucers looked like they did in the pictures way back when, then i have a hell of a time believing they could be made by some advanced species that flew millions of miles.... The progression of "UFO's" kind of progresses along with everything else we make. Makes it kinda obvious

Great stuff Mirageman, well put together and nicely presented. Interesting to see whose name crops up, yet again, trying to claim "it's solved" when, a person from the locality is saying,

"Hang on a second, it wasn't quite that simple"

There's a definite pattern, in my opinion, beginning to emerge with certain cases where certain individuals are increasingly starting to look wholly untrustworthy when it comes to either, ignoring evidence or frankly, the deliberate misinterpretation of evidence.

Hi Mirageman,
Thanks for posting this. It reminds me of when the majority of threads were this good on abovetopsecret!

funnily enough, yesterday I had persuaded my girlfriend (who is half welsh, skeptic but I think she is more open minded since she has watched all the ancient alien episodes with me) to watch a documentary on hangar 18 at wright Patterson airforce base. Within this they had a map of america marked with all the places where UFO's were meant to have crashed. She said to me 'If there was anything in it then it would have happened in more places in the world than just the usa!' - I told her that it happens all over the world but lacked anything tangible apart from Rendlesham Forest incident and the allegations that Hitler had one.

Its now nice to have a welsh one to reference for her!

With regard to someone mentioning fortean times on here, I used to read that! I used to read the old ufo magazines as well but at some point they changed the style of them both and the nature of the journalism which I thought cheapened the whole thing and took it less seriously. Its a shame! However threads like this are very reminiscent. Very good journalism!!! .

Originally posted by FireMoon
Great stuff Mirageman, well put together and nicely presented. Interesting to see whose name crops up, yet again, trying to claim "it's solved" when, a person from the locality is saying,

"Hang on a second, it wasn't quite that simple"

There's a definite pattern, in my opinion, beginning to emerge with certain cases where certain individuals are increasingly starting to look wholly untrustworthy when it comes to either, ignoring evidence or frankly, the deliberate misinterpretation of evidence.

Hi again Firemoon.

I do enjoy digging through the old cases of the past from the homeland (UK). But there is indeed a pattern developing with certain researchers seemingly having an agenda to de-bunk and discredit others.There is at least one case from 1997 where it seems they may have even set up a falsified story to destroy credibility. Even in Nick Redfern changed his mind over the Berwyn case.

To be honest I am fairly conservative over the whole phenomenon myself. I am open minded but also quite sceptical. But it seems that some full time researchers also have their own agenda within the field in Britain. I wonder why?