In the Hills of Lothian there is an area called Ravenscraig which is known mostly as The Knock Forest, said to be old fairy land with a reputation of being haunted, I feel this maybe a case for the Cryptozoology researchers rather than the Paranormal experts as strange figures were spotted and reported not too long ago by different witnesses. One Figure was seen running in the forest by a family out for a drive, this Man-like Creature travelled at an estimated speed of 70 miles per hour. There are also a number of UFO sightings and one account of a terrifying abduction.
In the summer of 1988 on a forest road to the south-east of Cairnpapple a family out for a late-night drive in their new car. At the wheel of the Fiesta was David Colman, father of three, and at the time a 33 year-old mature student. His front seat passenger was his wife Kathleen, while their two sons and a daughter, aged between six and 14, were in the back. The strange encounter took place on a road running parallel to Ravencraig Wood, popularly known as the Knock Forest, less than a mile from their home in Bathgate. The trip was unplanned, the youngsters had persuaded their father to take them for a ride in the new car. As he headed for a small but steep incline topped with a dangerous right-hand bend, Davids attention was instantly drawn to his right side. In a split second he saw a glowing figure, in a classical running posture, moving extremely fast, possibly between 50 and 70 miles an hour!
The figure was bulky and well over six feet tall. 'As it ran in the opposite direction from the car it had its head turned back towards us and appeared to be scowling'. Silence gripped the occupants of the car. Then Kathleen asked her husband: 'You did see that, didn't you? The children shouted in unison: 'You saw the silver man, daddy!' 'The figure was white, not silver, but I suppose it appeared that way to the children. When I questioned them more closely they said the figure was crouched at the side of the road. As we approached, it took off through the forest.' Kathleen supported Davids account. 'There was complete silence until I asked David if he had seen the figure,' she said. 'The expression on his face told it all.' Kathleen, who saw the figure disappear into the forest, went on: 'It was a human shape, and I thought it was a male. I had a feeling it was not happy. It was not silver, more like a negative image. I remember the children were very excited by this event.'
Just a short walk away there is another hilly area called the Pentland Hills, which also have some very strange reports. Bathgate and Pentland and their wonderful hills have many of the things we are used to seeing in the Cryptid Creature reports and Unexplained events here in the UK, there is an old abandoned quarry, standing stones and a Stonehenge at the Cairnpapple site. The Knock forest has its own stone circle, and the hills themselves have another four standing menhirs or ancient stone sites. There are ample food opportunities, cover and water sources.
The Pentland Hills Howls 2007 - Witness Report: A few years ago now when I was wild camping I heard a strange howl that doesn't fit with any wildlife I know. "I think it was around 2007. I was in my tent when I heard it, I'm not sure about the time but I think it was sometime after midnight. Now I don't remember exactly what date it was but it could have been sometime between July and August. The howl seemed to come not far from Torduff road. The howl was quite long and seemed loud and it sounded like a cross between a wolf and a man to me. The pitch of the howl was quite low I think. I only heard it the once as I recall."
The Wildman Of The Pentland Hills - Witness Report: The person making this report stated they used to be involved with the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme, and ran a number of outdoor activities and he has spent a lot of his personal time outdoors. He was camping one night near woodland up in the Pentland hills when he had gone away from his group of friends to relieve himself. He saw something he couldn't identify which was large and black and was moving on two legs and he got such a fright he fell over a wall and ended up "on his a*se in the woods"
In the hopes of answers he apparently looked into black cat sightings for a while afterwards to see if that explained what he saw but he came to the conclusion that a cat that size would not have been able to walk on two legs. The location of this sighting is somewhere in the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh and would have happened around 1998.
Another hiker called Kay said that she has heard a few strange things from people when doing camping activities in Scotland, such as tents being collapsed in the middle of the night.
The sighting reports above are not the only ones in this area there are many more and just to the West is an area that can be accessed from the Hills of Bathgate and Pentland where there are strange reports of a UFO abduction and a strange running creature.
The UFO Incident. 1979 - When forestry worker Bob Taylor took his dog for a walk in the woodland in the Deans, Livingston area, he did not expect the next few hours would generate headlines around the world as police launched an investigation into his possible abduction. The Dechmont Woods incident happend on November 9, 1979 and led to a small village in West Lothian being dubbed “the twilight zone” after Bob reported seeing a large “flying dome” hovering above the forest floor. He described it as being made from a dark metallic material with a rough texture. It also had an outer rim with small propellers. As he approached, two spheres dropped down and started forcefully dragging him towards the dome, their protruding spikes hooking on to his trousers, and, after smelling a strong acid scent, he described being choked and eventually losing consciousness.
When he came round he was lying face-down on the grass with his dog nearby, although the strange objects had disappeared. He found that he couldn’t speak and his legs hurt. When he returned home his wife was concerned at the state he was in. He appeared dishevelled and his clothes were torn. Police were contacted and found strange marks in the soil beneath where the craft was said to have been hovering. They also determined it was likely his clothes had been ripped by a sharp, upward pull.
Kirk Newton Running Creature 1986/7 - Date of incident: approx 1986/87, late evening, Kirknewton, West Lothian. A historical encounter was reported in February 2015 from a work colleague, who tells of when he was a teenager growing up in the town of Kirknewton in West Lothian. He estimates the year to be around 1986/87. He states that he and his friends were daring each other to walk into one set of local woods one night and they eventually decided to go together, as they were approaching the woods they saw in the moonlight what is described as a large dark figure running across a field adjacent to the woods. It was reportedly running alternately upright and then down on all fours. It then vaulted a fence "It just glided over this fence and it looked like it had a really long neck. We thought it was trying to cut us off so we ran for it.
"He also reports that "strange stuff" used to happen in the local woods, one example he was able to give was when they were out with a friend and his dog and approached an old walled burial ground in the woods. The dog stopped suddenly and tried to run away, straining on its lead. He states that it seemed frightened and desperate to get away, they decided to leave too. He was kind enough to show me the exact location of the incident, it is on the outskirts of the small town and the area has a lot of thick, old woodland and a nearby quarry which seems to be becoming the norm in many of the reports from Scotland. It is also on the edge of the Pentlands hill range.
A UFO seen late 1980's - A Mr A Ferguson whilst parking his lorry saw a strip of bright silvery light in the sky. The Object was speeding towards the Dechmont Law area.
If you manage to get out this weekend and you fancy a walk in some of Scotland's wilder places keep an eye on the sky and one on the woods as you never know what may be out there waiting to be seen. And we haven't touched on the ghost legends yet. There again you dont need to be in Scotland to come across experiences like these, they are happening in every county and Island in the United Kingdom. You can read those reports here MAP OF UK SIGHTING REPORTS
In the summer of 1988 on a forest road to the south-east of Cairnpapple a family out for a late-night drive in their new car. At the wheel of the Fiesta was David Colman, father of three, and at the time a 33 year-old mature student. His front seat passenger was his wife Kathleen, while their two sons and a daughter, aged between six and 14, were in the back. The strange encounter took place on a road running parallel to Ravencraig Wood, popularly known as the Knock Forest, less than a mile from their home in Bathgate. The trip was unplanned, the youngsters had persuaded their father to take them for a ride in the new car. As he headed for a small but steep incline topped with a dangerous right-hand bend, Davids attention was instantly drawn to his right side. In a split second he saw a glowing figure, in a classical running posture, moving extremely fast, possibly between 50 and 70 miles an hour!
The figure was bulky and well over six feet tall. 'As it ran in the opposite direction from the car it had its head turned back towards us and appeared to be scowling'. Silence gripped the occupants of the car. Then Kathleen asked her husband: 'You did see that, didn't you? The children shouted in unison: 'You saw the silver man, daddy!' 'The figure was white, not silver, but I suppose it appeared that way to the children. When I questioned them more closely they said the figure was crouched at the side of the road. As we approached, it took off through the forest.' Kathleen supported Davids account. 'There was complete silence until I asked David if he had seen the figure,' she said. 'The expression on his face told it all.' Kathleen, who saw the figure disappear into the forest, went on: 'It was a human shape, and I thought it was a male. I had a feeling it was not happy. It was not silver, more like a negative image. I remember the children were very excited by this event.'
Just a short walk away there is another hilly area called the Pentland Hills, which also have some very strange reports. Bathgate and Pentland and their wonderful hills have many of the things we are used to seeing in the Cryptid Creature reports and Unexplained events here in the UK, there is an old abandoned quarry, standing stones and a Stonehenge at the Cairnpapple site. The Knock forest has its own stone circle, and the hills themselves have another four standing menhirs or ancient stone sites. There are ample food opportunities, cover and water sources.
The Pentland Hills Howls 2007 - Witness Report: A few years ago now when I was wild camping I heard a strange howl that doesn't fit with any wildlife I know. "I think it was around 2007. I was in my tent when I heard it, I'm not sure about the time but I think it was sometime after midnight. Now I don't remember exactly what date it was but it could have been sometime between July and August. The howl seemed to come not far from Torduff road. The howl was quite long and seemed loud and it sounded like a cross between a wolf and a man to me. The pitch of the howl was quite low I think. I only heard it the once as I recall."
The Wildman Of The Pentland Hills - Witness Report: The person making this report stated they used to be involved with the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme, and ran a number of outdoor activities and he has spent a lot of his personal time outdoors. He was camping one night near woodland up in the Pentland hills when he had gone away from his group of friends to relieve himself. He saw something he couldn't identify which was large and black and was moving on two legs and he got such a fright he fell over a wall and ended up "on his a*se in the woods"
In the hopes of answers he apparently looked into black cat sightings for a while afterwards to see if that explained what he saw but he came to the conclusion that a cat that size would not have been able to walk on two legs. The location of this sighting is somewhere in the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh and would have happened around 1998.
Another hiker called Kay said that she has heard a few strange things from people when doing camping activities in Scotland, such as tents being collapsed in the middle of the night.
The sighting reports above are not the only ones in this area there are many more and just to the West is an area that can be accessed from the Hills of Bathgate and Pentland where there are strange reports of a UFO abduction and a strange running creature.
The UFO Incident. 1979 - When forestry worker Bob Taylor took his dog for a walk in the woodland in the Deans, Livingston area, he did not expect the next few hours would generate headlines around the world as police launched an investigation into his possible abduction. The Dechmont Woods incident happend on November 9, 1979 and led to a small village in West Lothian being dubbed “the twilight zone” after Bob reported seeing a large “flying dome” hovering above the forest floor. He described it as being made from a dark metallic material with a rough texture. It also had an outer rim with small propellers. As he approached, two spheres dropped down and started forcefully dragging him towards the dome, their protruding spikes hooking on to his trousers, and, after smelling a strong acid scent, he described being choked and eventually losing consciousness.
When he came round he was lying face-down on the grass with his dog nearby, although the strange objects had disappeared. He found that he couldn’t speak and his legs hurt. When he returned home his wife was concerned at the state he was in. He appeared dishevelled and his clothes were torn. Police were contacted and found strange marks in the soil beneath where the craft was said to have been hovering. They also determined it was likely his clothes had been ripped by a sharp, upward pull.
Kirk Newton Running Creature 1986/7 - Date of incident: approx 1986/87, late evening, Kirknewton, West Lothian. A historical encounter was reported in February 2015 from a work colleague, who tells of when he was a teenager growing up in the town of Kirknewton in West Lothian. He estimates the year to be around 1986/87. He states that he and his friends were daring each other to walk into one set of local woods one night and they eventually decided to go together, as they were approaching the woods they saw in the moonlight what is described as a large dark figure running across a field adjacent to the woods. It was reportedly running alternately upright and then down on all fours. It then vaulted a fence "It just glided over this fence and it looked like it had a really long neck. We thought it was trying to cut us off so we ran for it.
"He also reports that "strange stuff" used to happen in the local woods, one example he was able to give was when they were out with a friend and his dog and approached an old walled burial ground in the woods. The dog stopped suddenly and tried to run away, straining on its lead. He states that it seemed frightened and desperate to get away, they decided to leave too. He was kind enough to show me the exact location of the incident, it is on the outskirts of the small town and the area has a lot of thick, old woodland and a nearby quarry which seems to be becoming the norm in many of the reports from Scotland. It is also on the edge of the Pentlands hill range.
A UFO seen late 1980's - A Mr A Ferguson whilst parking his lorry saw a strip of bright silvery light in the sky. The Object was speeding towards the Dechmont Law area.
If you manage to get out this weekend and you fancy a walk in some of Scotland's wilder places keep an eye on the sky and one on the woods as you never know what may be out there waiting to be seen. And we haven't touched on the ghost legends yet. There again you dont need to be in Scotland to come across experiences like these, they are happening in every county and Island in the United Kingdom. You can read those reports here MAP OF UK SIGHTING REPORTS
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