STRANGE SKIES
For years there have been calls for British UFO
researchers to set up a permanent or semi-permanent 'skywatch' site which
could be used in an attempt to record earth light phenomena on film and
with other instrumentation. Already sterling work has been done in Norway's
Hessdalen valley, the Australian outback and other places to track UFO-type
lights to ground; some of the results of the efforts were screened in Channel
4's Equinox documentary IFOs in 1996. Now, efforts are being made,
with backing of BUFORA and Earthlights writer Paul Devereux, to organise
a similar effort in Britain.
The Derbyshire Peak District's Longdendale Valley was identified as one
of Northern England's most active 'window areas' during ongoing research
for Project Pennine, an independent study of Ball of Light phenomena set
up by Andy Roberts and myself in ten years ago. Like Hessdalen, Marfa in
Texas and many other locations worldwide, the valley has been haunted by
mysterious lights for centuries and they are still being reported regularly
today.
Longdendale is situated within half an hour's journey from the centre of
two major cities, Manchester and Sheffield, and easily accessible from the
motorway network. For this reason Project Pennine proposes Longdendale,
and specifically Bleaklow, as the base for Britain's UFO observation point.
Longdendale branches west from the main Pennine watershed and is actually
formed by the valley of the River Etherow, which drains westwards from the
high moors beyond Woodhead towards the Irish Sea. On either side of the
heavily faulted valley rise forbidding gritstone mountain plateaus, with
Kinder Scout and Bleaklow to the south and Black Hill to the north. Both
these ranges have been the scene of dozens of sightings and close encounter
experiences since the beginning of recorded history.
Dozens of Longdendale residents have experienced the phantom lights which
haunt Bleaklow mountain and the Woodhead pass which runs below it.
Nearly everyone who has lived in the upper part of the valley has either
seen or knows someone who has seen them. The lights are just one strand
of a rich tapestry of stories and legends associated with the peak - a dark,
high rocky plateau covered by a thick layer of peat and heather. At its
harsh 2,060ft (628m) summit Bleaklow has a reputation as England's only
true desert - empty, chilling and hostile. It is a place where nature remains
very much in control and man is a mere visitor. Even today, the only breaks
in the acres of lonely moor are the occasional hiker and the calls of sheep,
mountain hare, curlew and grouse who live on the tops.
Mystery moving flames are so well known they have become part of the folklore
of the region. Stories about them go back generations and, in tales handed
down through the generations, they became associated with the Devil, hence
their local name, the Devil's Bonfires. One resident remembers how back
in the 1950s his granny would point towards Torside Castle and Glossop Low
from their home in Old Glossop and talk about 'the mystery lights' which
flickered and hovered above the Devil's Elbow. Ten years later, as a volunteer
in the local mountain rescue team, he heard about them again when motorists
began to report lights resembling distress flares hovering above the moors.
In tradition, the Devil's Bonfires were said to hover around a mysterious
mound near the summit of Bleaklow known as Torside Castle. Archaeologists
believe the mound dates from the Bronze Age, while others believe it is
a natural lump of mud and rock left in a wake of the glaciers which once
cut through the valley.
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