The Great UFO Cover Up? : Berwyn Mountains, Wales, Jan 1974

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

The Great UFO Cover Up? : Berwyn Mountains, Wales, Jan 1974 part 2


A Load of Old Bolides

Andy Roberts

Andy Roberts’ (and the accepted official) story of events is that a meteor entered the earth's atmosphere over Britain accompanied by an earthquake registering above 4 on the Richter scale. Activity afterwards, from the men in black, was attributed to visits from the Geological Survey teams. The lights seen were either from the meteor, or earth lights created by the tremor. The smaller lights seen by Pat Evans were claimed to be poachers’ lamps. Also two military jets allegedly had crashed in the area in both 1972 and then 1982 and some witnesses (questioned well after the event) are thought to have mixed this up with the original event from 1974 and hence the claims of military roadblocks by confused locals. The explanations were plausible the case seemed closed.



Berwyn Re-visited

A couple of decades after the original incident had seemingly been buried as a piece of Welsh folklore Berwyn once again gained focus in the 1990s and early 21s century and would not go away.

A UFO Landing?

Scott Felton

Scott Felton, a long time researcher of the case believes that the official story was a cover-up and that a craft of some sort landed on the mountain and stayed there for around an hour and a half.
Scott maintains that Andy Roberts story is full of erroneous detail. Pat Evans could not have seen poachers’ lamps (or even the police lights) on Cader Berwyn because both groups were miles away on Cader Bronwen and the poachers had finished by 9.00pm. The aircraft crashes that confused the memories of villagers’ years after the event are also questioned. Felton has discovered that no military crash occurred in 1972 anywhere near Berwyn and in 1982 a light training aircraft (not a Harrier - as Roberts claimed) crashed with very little disturbance to the locals during a rapid clear up operation.

Felton goes further and states that back in 1974 a hotel chef was stopped whilst returning from Corwen, a reporter from Bala had a camera confiscated by British military and that two students returning from a course in Dolgellau noted a very heavy police presence in Llandrillo at just after 9.30pm. He even claims that a relative of Pat Evans, claimed she confided in them that she had been stopped by a military patrol whilst returning from the mountains on the night of the incident. Something Roberts refutes.

Scott Felton’s research has led him to conclude that a UFO had landed in the mountains on a number of occasions and prior to the 23rd Jan. 1974. He believes that a military operation was planned for the 23rd (using the meteor story as a cover if needed) but no one had predicted the earth tremor that brought people out into the streets. Although Felton does not claim anything extra-terrestrial landed he has been quoted as saying:

I believe an object came down, it stayed for about an hour and a half and left of its own volition. It was hanging around before January 23rd and it was around for up to three weeks afterwards. The military was waiting for it that night. The only way they knew to be there was because it had been coming for a few days.

www.denbighshirefreepress.co.uk...

A Cosmic Crash?

Nick Redfern

In his book “Cosmic Crashes” (1999), Nick Redfern tells of a UFO crashing into the North Wales Mountains.

In a chilling echo of the infamous Roswell Incident in New Mexico, scores of troops were dispatched on a secret mission to recover the wreckage. One soldier, (under the pseudonym) James Prescott, was ordered to Llandderfel with four others and loaded two oblong boxes into their armoured truck. They then ferried the bodies back to the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment at Porton Down near Salisbury, Wilts, under strict orders not to stop for anything

But by the time of the publication of Dr. David Clarke and Andy Roberts’ book “Out of the Shadows” in 2002, Redfern began to flip flop and in an interview with Richard Thomas said

I was of the opinion that a UFO had come down, then I changed my mind after reading the research of Andy Roberts. However, I still get accounts now and again from locals and retired military people (all from RAF Valley, interestingly enough) of knowledge of bodies recovered and taken to Porton Down, Wiltshire. So, I'll be the first to admit that, today, it's one that continues to puzzle me. On the one hand, I am convinced that Andy has solved massive parts of the story. But, on the other hand, it's difficult to dismiss the testimony of the military people who have accounts to relate, and nothing to gain by spreading a false story. I think, though, that we have not heard the last of the case by any means!

cont. in part 3

The Great UFO Cover Up? : Berwyn Mountains, Wales, Jan 1974 part 3

The Royal Navy and RAF engaged UFOs off the British Coastline

Russ Kellet

Another researcher Russ Kellet uncovered a Marine and Coastguard document in 2000, detailing that :

During the late afternoon and early evening of 23rd January 1974 there was an exercise from Jurby Range on the Isle of Man. “ The exercise was called ‘Photoflash' and coastguards were advised to expect at least 10 aircraft taking part and at least 80 flashes around the Liverpool Bay area and the North Wales coastline

There is no more information from official sources and why it was commissioned for that day. Nor is it clear what the "flashes" were. “The photoflash operation was used to light up the coast so they could see submerged craft in the sea.

He stated in the Liverpool (and North Wales) Daily Post in 2010
(www.dailypost.co.uk...)

From my research, there were three separate craft that were flushed out of the ocean that night, military craft were involved and there was an engagement.

“I spoke to a fisherman who saw one come out near Puffin Island, his colleagues at the time told him to say nothing about it because it was considered bad luck, and he never spoke about it for years. I have correspondence with a group of men who told me they were moved on by military personnel on the roadside at Llandrillo where one of the craft came down. “They said they saw aliens getting out the craft who were helping two of their own who were injured. They were then loaded onto the back of a flat back truck and taken away. The epicentre of the earthquake was at Bala Lake. That is where one of the craft came down.
The other one smashed into the mountain side at Berwyn.

Russ also claims to have several fragments of one of the craft.

Although a small (if unreadable) copy of the document was included in the original story on the original webpage it has now been removed. In Sept 2011 a private individual tried to gain access to the original Marine and Coastguard document referenced above via a FOI request.



www.whatdotheyknow.com...-151758

The search ultimately proved fruitless. Was the document and Kellet’s story simply a fake? Or is something deeper being covered up?

Phantom Helicopters.



Slightly tangential to the Berwyn incident but worth mentioning is that in the months preceding this event reports of "phantom helicopters" were being made by the public in Northern England and featuring in the tabloid press. The main fear was these were flown by IRA terrorists, drug smugglers or possibly foreign spies. Reports in early January were coming in from the Cheshire and Derbyshire areas of England of a helicopter being flown at night low over the hills and dangerously close to power lines. The MoD was asked, by Police Special Branch, for assistance but this was declined on the grounds of costs. Although investigations went on into the autumn of 1974 the perpetrators were never found. (Ref National Archives DEFE 24-2031-1). Did these incidents have any links to Berwyn?

Finally in 2008 a further witness came forward stating that he saw something 3 weeks after the initial incident.

Geraint Edwards said:

It was definitely a flying saucer. It was a pity I didn't have a camera because it was there for at least 10 minutes, just hovering. We were on the way down to play darts when something caught our eye in the south-east, so we stopped. 'It looked like a rugger (rugby) ball, but the ends of it were more pointy. When it took off, it just went like lightning on the same line as it hovered. I wrote it down in my diary. It was 6.45pm on the Friday night. If we were coming back from the pub, people would be saying, 'They've had one or two.' But we were going TO the pub.

Berwyn is arguably 2nd only to Rendlesham as Britain’s major UFO incident. Despite that it remains somewhat unknown outside of the British Isles.

If the explosion and lights can all be simply explained as a meteorite and an earthquake, then you can see how the “Roswell like” mythology is allowed to build in stories of this nature. But, if not, then something really odd was going on back in January 1974 and the authorities have still to reveal the truth to us.

References to follow >

The Great UFO Cover Up? : Berwyn Mountains, Wales, Jan 1974 References



UFO Data magazine 7

National Archives document DEFE 24-2031-1

www.bbc.co.uk...
naturalplane.blogspot.co.uk... forteanreviews.blogspot.co.uk...
binnallofamerica.com...
ufo-blog.com...
ufo-blog.com...
query.homestead.com...
exopoliticsunitedkingdom.org... www.uk-ufo.org...
www.dailypost.co.uk...
nora.nerc.ac.uk... conwyufogroup.piczo.com... www.forteantimes.com...

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.

reply to post by mirageman


I just wan't to say that was beautifully written and i read it all i have been there funny enough
a few weeks ago on holiday the scenery is breathtaking. My view is secret craft being tested.

reply to post by nerbot


Thanks nerbot. The pics (other than the news clippings and photos) are basically my own graphics of how I imagined the scene to be at the time. Hopefully they break up the text and add a bit more interest to people reading this.

There is an awful lot of testimony and things I had to leave out from this case. Russ Kellet's and Nick Redfern's stories seem far too speculative to be true in my opinion. Andy Roberts sceptical view is probably very close to what happened - but not quite. There are a number of inaccuracies in his writings and he also failed to consider any original testimony in Welsh. He also fails to explain what Pat Evans and her daughters saw glowing on Cader Berwyn.

Hopefully a few more ATS members will chip in with their thoughts now!

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.

S+F, some very interesting ufology lore has happened in Wales, another intriguing, alleged event:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

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

firstly many thanks to the board moderators for accepting my membership of this excellent and thought provoking site. I was delighted to see this story on this board as im from wales, which is a country which has seen quite a lot of interesting ufo related events and encounters down the years. In addition to the fascinating berwyn mountain's incident there was also the famous welsh triangle of the 1970s of course, while board members may be unaware that another ufo is said to have crashed or landed in wales - this time in 1983 just outside the mid wales town of aberystwyth...more can be found on this here
www.youtube.com...

while board members interested in this story might also be interested in a book that was recently published that looks at the history of ufos in wales.
www.lulu.com...
the book is also available as a kindle on amazon

reply to post by SiriusB


First off.... Nice post!!

Sirus, If you have missed them, the below are a couple of links are to other threads regarding this topic that you will find interesting and useful.


Roswelch Incident

Broadhaven

Enjoy :-)

Here is a 2008 Channel 5 (UK) Documentary on the Berwyn case.



It fails to mention the more speculative theories but gives a good general idea of the area with some archive footage as well.

Here is another shorter video from 1996 featuring nurse Pat Evans and her two daughters.



This one has got it wrong from the first minute when it says a nurse, Mrs Evans rushed to the red phone box in Llandrillo. Pat Evans lived in Llandderfel . However the scenery is nice and the presenter pauses between words long enough for you to concentrate on it.

Originally posted by SiriusB
firstly many thanks to the board moderators for accepting my membership of this excellent and thought provoking site. I was delighted to see this story on this board as im from wales, which is a country which has seen quite a lot of interesting ufo related events and encounters down the years. In addition to the fascinating berwyn mountain's incident there was also the famous welsh triangle of the 1970s of course, while board members may be unaware that another ufo is said to have crashed or landed in wales - this time in 1983 just outside the mid wales town of aberystwyth...more can be found on this here
www.youtube.com...

while board members interested in this story might also be interested in a book that was recently published that looks at the history of ufos in wales.
www.lulu.com...
the book is also available as a kindle on amazon

Welcome (Croeso) to ATS SiriusB, haven't been around long myself. That book seems interesting as Wales is my 2nd favourite country in the whole of the British Isles.

However I am fairly certain that the Aberystwyth crash alleged to have happened in 1983 was nothing more than parts falling off an aircraft at best and a total fabrication at worst. If you go to that thread you will see that I mention the DVD was only released in Region 1 (odd for story of a UFO crash that happened in Wales - Region 2). The local researcher at University of Wales found no reference at all in local newspapers and is being interviewed, sitting in the library amongst the science fiction and fantasy section. All net searches lead back to the DVD and not a single first hand witness is interviewed in that DVD. I personally think there is nothing to the story but am willing to review that standpoint if better evidence comes to light.

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?

Berwyn UFO Update

I’ve recently found some more information regarding the Berwyn Mountains UFO that goes against the officially accepted story of a meteor, and an earth tremor (from Andy Roberts). It confirms that an explosion was heard at 8:30 pm followed by an earth tremor at 8:39 pm, which taken alone, points to the conclusion Andy Roberts came to.

However the article goes on to say that a Ken Haughton of Betws-y-Coed (B),about 15 miles west of Llandrillo (A), sighted a luminous sphere, with no tail, descending at an estimated 1000 – 1500 mph. It was 15000 feet up and around 300 – 400 feet across in size. He predicted it would have come down in the Irish Sea off the coast of Rhyl. What is more interesting is that this sighting was around 10:00 pm and he recalls the News at Ten starting on TV as he returned indoors. This is much later than the original explosions heard in Llandrillo.



The police at Oswestry reported sighting lights after the rumble at 8:30 pm and the coastguard at Holyhead saw an object that resembled a flaming tadpole about an hour afterwards. Farmer John Lewis sighted a hedgehog shaped craft hovering the day before the explosion.


There is also a report of an object being sighted on the evening after the explosion was heard. David Upton of Gobowen (just north of Oswestry) sighted a craft in the West at around 7:15 pm. Viewing through binoculars he saw a disc shaped object divided into 4 sections (individually coloured red, green, yellow and purple). This was confirmed by his sister and mother.

Finally 150 miles to the North East ,in Sunderland, a long black oblong object was also seen hovering above Barnes School on the same night as the main activity in North Wales (Jan 23rd 1974). This sighting was around 7:15 pm. A little over an hour before the explosion and lights were seen in North Wales.
This evidence came from news reports immediately after the events and so the witnesses are likely to have been clearer on the facts. It is highly unlikely that all the reports are lies and people seeking attention. Especially reports from the Oswestry police and the North Wales Coastguard.

It seems there is much more to the Berwyn UFO story than the official view that:

....a private investigation done on behalf of the British Astronomical Society concluded however that the meteor may in fact have disintegrated over Manchester, and that its appearance was preceded at 8.32pm by an earth tremor in the Berwyn mountains with which it had no connection.

Whether aliens crashed and a military exercise in the Irish Sea was conducted to flush the UFO out is still speculation.

Source: Flying Saucer Review CH18

I just found this article which covers all the timelines and theories. It's quite interesting for a scientific article to even acknowledge such things as UFOs, witnesses seeing fliying spheres and discs, green lights and visits by "men in black" etc.when creating a scientific work. Click on thisHarvard URL to read an accurate and pretty rounded review of what happened and what the causes were thought to be.