1979: The Dechmont Woods Encounter

(Last Updated On: April 9, 2021)

THINK ABOUTIT ABDUCTION/ENCOUNTER REPORT

Date: November 9, 1979

Sighting Time: 10:30 PM

Day/Night: Evening

Location: Livingston, Scotland

Urban or Rural: Rural

Hynek Classification: CE-III (Close Encounter III) Close observation with animate beings associated with the object.

Duration:

No. of Object(s):  Multiple

Height & Speed:

Size of Object(s): twenty feet (six meters) in diameter

Distance to Object(s):

Shape of Object(s): Round

Color of Object(s): dark grey

Number of Witnesses: Single

Source: APRO, July 1980

Summary/Description: Robert Taylor, a forester from West Lothian, Scotland, encountered a strange object and equally strange smaller objects or “entities”. The rounded larger object, 20 feet in diameter, hovered above the ground. Then, two small objects, which were round but had appendages, “rushed” toward him. These objects each attached itself to one (each) of his trouser legs and tugged him towards the larger object, at which time Taylor lost consciousness. Ground marks were discovered at the scene of the encounter. 

Full Report

An artist’s impression of the craft and ‘mines’ Taylor described, based on sketches he drew after the encounter.

Plan of site markings from police measurements. The shading inside the small circles indicate the top side of angled holes. Six meter diameter circle is assumed position of UFO. (credit: APRO)

The witness, Robert Taylor, examines the strange marks on the ground that were left by the objects. (Credit: The Economist)

THE SCOTTISH LANDING CASE

The February 1980 (Vol. 28, #8) issue of the Bulletin contained a preliminary report on the alleged encounter of a West Lothian, Scotland forester with a strange object and equally strange smaller objects or “entities”. The “happening” took place on November 9, 1979, and the following is the information gleaned from additional clippings and mainly from the Journal of Transient Aerial Phenomena, Vol.1, No.2, March, 1980. Strangely enough, the article was written by Stuart Campbell, the architect who initially identified the object(s) as manifestation(s) of ball lightning. However, it does seem that Mr. Campbell is being fairly objective, and the following are the “gleanings”. We refer the readers to the February, 1980 (Vol. 28, #8) issue of the Bulletin to save space and repetition.

Robert Taylor, forester, (sixteen years tenure with the Livingston Development Corporation) and now a foreman, left his home in Lothian at 1000 GMT in a Forestry Department van, to inspect young trees to the North of the town near highway M8. As he could not drive the van all the way due to the density of trees, he left it on the side of the roadway and proceeded on foot.

Mr. Taylor, accompanied by his dog—walked the rest of the way, and at about 10:15 he rounded a corner in the forest path ( 100 meters from the road but out of sight of it) and came upon a strange sight.

Before him was a rounded object with a rim-like appendage (according to Journal of Transient Aerial Phenomena) not unlike a circular platform (see drawing, reproduced from JTAP, artist not identified).

At first the smaller objects were not in evidence, according to Taylor. The larger object was hovering above the ground, neither moving nor making any sound. The “thing” was dark grey with a texture similar to that of sand-paper. It appeared to become transparent in one area or another, seemingly, to Taylor, to “camouflage” itself. The “craft” was estimated to be twenty feet (six meters) in diameter.

Taylor said he stood, amazed, and stared at the object, then two small objects (apparently coming from under the large object) “rushed” toward him. They had a color and texture similar to that of the “parent” object, but were outfitted with appendages (see figure 1). They rolled on a horizontal axis and made a “plopping” noise as the “legs” made contact with the ground.

Upon reaching him, these objects each attached itself to one (each) of his trouser legs, just below the pockets on the sides. Taylor felt them tug him toward the large object and at the same time, he said, he was nearly suffocated by a strong acrid smell which he compared with that of burning automobile brake linings and which he felt came from the “things”.

Taylor became aware that he was being dragged forward and his boots were scraping on the ground, before he lost consciousness, and fell forward and laid face downwards.

When Taylor regained consciousness, the objects were gone, but his dog was with him. He tried to speak to her but found he had lost his voice. He tried to stand but his legs would not support him, so he crawled approximately 90 meters (300 ft.) back up the trail toward his van, and then unsteadily half crawled and half staggered the rest of the 430 meters to his van. There, he attempted to contact his headquarters via two-way radio but was unsuccessful because of his voice.

Taylor then attempted to back the van up the track but unfortunately he ran off the track onto soft ground and could not get it out. Using short cuts through woods and fields, he walked the remaining 1600 meters back to his home, arriving at 11:30 a.m. During his walk between his van and his home his voice returned.

Upon seeing her husband’s state when he arrived home, Mrs. Taylor assumed he had been attacked and started to call the police, but Taylor stopped her and had her call Mr. Malcolm Drummond, the head of the Forestry Department and his superior. Drummond immediately went to the Taylor residence and he and Taylor went back to the scene of the encounter where they found strange holes in the ground which Taylor said had not been there before that morning. Mrs. Taylor had noticed some unaccountable tears in his trousers in the areas where Taylor claimed the small objects had attached themselves.

Mr. Taylor was later examined by his Doctor who found only a “grase” (scrape?) on his chin and on his thigh. The Doctor sent him to the Bangour hospital for a skull X-ray but Taylor checked himself out before this was accomplished. (Editor’s note: This may strike some readers as odd, but if Scottish hospitals are anything like American ones, any tests except for those required in dire emergencies, are only undertaken on weekdays and it is possible Taylor didn’t relish a hospital stay over the weekend for an X-ray, especially if he had no pain in his head, and so far the reports do not indicate that he did).

The following excerpts were taken from the “Journal of Transient Aerial Phenomena” with their permission:

“The ground marks (see Figure 3) were of two types. First, there were two isolated ladder type “tracks” about 2.5 m long and the same distance apart. Each “rung” of the ladder (see Photograph 1), was 2 or 3 cm wide and deep, and about 30 cm long, and the area of grass between each “rung” was evenly flattened, but not as deeply as the “rungs”. Although the “tracks” appear to be impressions made by a heavy object, the indentations were only in the grass; they did not alter the ground profile under the grass as they would have done if subjected to a heavy weight. The grass blades were each folded and formed to follow the outline of a rectangular indentations.”

“Secondly there were 40 holes surrounding the “tracks”, as shown in Figure 3. These holes all exposed fresh earth and were tapered from a maximum width of about 10cm, but at an angle as shown, The angle was fairly shallow; about 30° to the horizontal. A remarkable feature was the fact that the direction of the angle of the holes was consistent and always in line with the next hole in line. Two distinct and related sets of holes can be detected, and it is clear that one set of holes proceeds clock-wise, while the other proceeds anti clockwise, and that they are in tandem between the “tracks”. In some cases, blades of grass surrounding the edge of a hole were sheared off.”

“No grass was scorched. The marks were measured and recorded by the local police the same day, and the area fenced off by the Forestry Department. The marks were photographed by Alastair Sutherland (a friend of a member of the Forestry Department) and by me, the following day.”

“Robert Taylor’s clothes (including the trousers) were taken by the police for forensic examination. Only the trousers and his long underpants showed anything unusual.Figure 4 and 5 show the tears on each leg of the trousers, which are made of navy blue serge. The right leg tear is about 65cm up from the bottom of the leg, while the left tear is about 76cm up.”

UPDATED: Edinburgh Evening News press article (2004)

Source: Gareth Edwards, Edinburgh Evening News, Nov. 9, 2004

Summary: IT was a terrifying close encounter which led to the only case in British history of an alien sighting being the subject of a criminal investigation. Exactly 25 years later, the case is still open on forestry worker Bob Taylor’s brush with mysterious alien spheres on Dechmont Law.

“I’m after the aliens that beat up Bob..”

GARETH EDWARDS

IT was a terrifying close encounter which led to the only case in British history of an alien sighting being the subject of a criminal investigation.

Exactly 25 years later, the case is still open on forestry worker Bob Taylor’s brush with mysterious alien spheres on Dechmont Law.

Now, on the anniversary of the event, UFO enthusiasts are set to descend on the site, to show that the truth really is out there.

They have arranged to visit the site today to meditate in silence at the exact time of Mr Taylor’s encounter.

The event has been organised by paranormal investigator Ron Halliday, chairman of Scottish Earth Mysteries Research, who believes the encounter to be one of the most significant events in the history of ufology.

It is certainly one of the best- documented, and to this day defies rational explanation.

On November 9, 1979, at around 10.30am, Mr Taylor, then a forestry worker employed by the Livingston Development Corporation, parked his truck at the bottom of Dechmont Law.

He walked up the lower slope of the hill with his dog, and as he emerged into a clearing saw a large, circular, sphere-like object about 20 feet across.

Mr Taylor said it appeared to be made from a dark metallic material with a rough texture like sandpaper.

As he approached the object, two spheres, each about three feet wide with protruding metal spikes like old naval mines, dropped from the object.

The two spheres rolled towards him and despite his dog barking furiously, attached themselves to his trousers. There was an acrid smell that caused him to choke and he felt a sensation of being grabbed by the side of the legs and tugged forward.

The next thing Mr Taylor remembered was waking up with his head pounding, a sore throat, and a bitter taste in his mouth. He later calculated that he had been unconscious for at least 20 minutes.

“I was completely devastated afterwards,” he recalled. “I couldn’t walk and the doctor came to look at me. We went back with the police and found all these marks where it had been.”

The police found unusual indentations in the ground, ladder-shaped marks where the craft was said to have stood, and marks following the path of the mine-like objects.

They said they were “completely baffled” by the incident, which was treated as an assault.

Now 87, Mr Taylor moved away from the area after the event, but on the eve of the anniversary he revealed it was still in his thoughts.

“I stand by every word of my account of the incident,” he said.

“I told it as it happened and it’s as clear as yesterday. It is the most amazing thing that ever happened to me.

“I know what I saw and it looked like a spaceship, a huge flying dome. I’m not surprised there has been so much interest in it over the years as it was such an incredible thing to happen.”

Mr Halliday believes going back to the site on the anniversary could yield some clues to the nature of the encounter, and has not ruled out the possibility of once again making contact.

“We want to go back to the site to mark this anniversary and perhaps by being there we will be able to make contact again with whatever it was Bob Taylor saw,” he said.

“It is possible that this was something from another dimension which for a short period of time appeared in our world. That fits with what Taylor saw, as he said the object appeared solid but at brief moments was shimmering and partially transparent.

“Even sceptics believe he is telling the truth about what he saw, and no explanation has been given to what it could have been.”

Mr Taylor’s encounter took place on the edge of the area known as the Falkirk triangle, one of the most “visited” UFO hotspots in the world. Around 300 UFOs are seen in Scotland each year, the highest concentration of UFO sightings on the planet.