It is a little difficult to capture my thoughts at the time of the first sighting. I was only thirteen years old at the time and had been returning home late from piano lessons at schoolThe school was Mackie Academy in Stonehaven It was a good school.Lewis Grassic Gibbon had studied there a long time ago! It would have been around six o'clock at night. Muchalls village had no street lights in that era (1971) and the main Stonehaven-Aberdeen road was much narrower with no lights. When I got off the bus it was so dark that you could hardly see in front of you. Because of this we used to carry torches to get up the road. Particularly important here is to note that the sightings had nothing to do with Muchalls village! I only call the sighting the Muchalls UFOs because Muchalls was the nearest landmark. A better description would be the Cookney UFOs or Cairnhill UFOs but most people outside the area (even in Stonehaven or Aderdeen!) know Muchalls as a landmark but not the other places. So those from Muchalls village reading this can rest assured that Muchalls village itself was to my knowledge free from all UFO activity.
So anyway,here I was on my way home going west from Muchalls in the direction of Cookney when to my right hand side (to the north near Cairnhill) was a strange red light that flashed on and off about once every second. It was quite low on the horizon but I thought little of it at the time. After all, it was the start of the Aberdeen oil boom and there might have been helicopters in the area. Similarly, aircraft fly in that direction towards Dyce airport in Aberdeen. What I did find strange was that the light seemed to be moving parallel to me,stopping when I did and starting when I did. Its velocity appeared to be the same as mine.I was a little bit more startled when to my left hand side near the Whinwood plantation (we called it the 'big wood' though in reality it was quite small!) there was another identical red light flashing away. Two helicopters I thought - must be something up. Then I saw a third red light straight ahead of me - again flashing on and off.I think on that evening there was possibly a fourth but I cannot recall. From the distance I could hear no sound but I did not find this surprising as sometimes the sound from aircraft in the distance cannot be heard until they are quite close. I did get the feeling that I was somehow being watched. A few weeks earlier I had seen a similar object over Cairnhill whilst getting eggs from the Burn of Pheppie farm.
What concerned me a bit as I was walking home was that I was surrounded on all sides by these silent objects (unless I went back towards the main road). I was more intrigued that scared to begin with. When I reached the top of the road (the Cookney road directly opposite the village) I paused for a bit to view the Cairnhill light to see what it was up to. It came a bit nearer - it seemed to be getting closer and it dipped beneath the rise in the road out of sight. I thought it had landed nearby. My next thought was to get home quickly.
I turned round to proceed further and immediately froze - for right in front of me (15 yards)on the avenue was standing a figure which seemed to glow. I can only remember a big head and what looked like a long robe or gown. I was frozen to the spot out of fear for about half a minute. Eventually I plucked up enough courage to move one step forward and the figure simply melted away. In retrospect I wonder if it was some form of hollographic projection. (I know the psychologists will laugh and say it was a hallucination!). I never saw a figure like it ever again.
When I reached home I was in a state of shock. I told my mother and father and sister. Only my sister seemed interested as both my parents were busy. After supper my sister (fifteen at the time) suggested we both go down to the same spot where I had seen the lights. I agreed although I was a bit reluctant and still shaking from fear. In fact as would happen to me many times later, my curiosity seemed to overcome my fear.
When we arrived at the bottom of the avenue there was nothing to be seen. I was thinking to myself "just my luck" no other witnesses to these lights. I said to my sister "well one of them appeared to be very low as if it had landed over there" and pointed to the spot. I had no sooner finished the sentence when it appeared again and moved further towards us. My sister rushed towards it and I reluctantly followed. Had I not seen the figure in the road earlier I would have had more enthusiasm. The two of us and the flying machine met at the roadside. It hovered above us for several minutes at an altitude of about twice the hight of the trees.It was completely silent.We saw a circle of smaller red lights around what we thought was the perimeter of the machine. After a few minutes it slowly and silently moved off in a southerly direction over the church and stopped over a nearby wood called the 'Whinwood Plantation' (next to Muchalls Castle on the map) There it stayed for hours on end. My sister watched it until bedtime. I believe it was still there when she went to bed. I for one did not sleep well in that house for many years later.
As you will read in the next section, this was just the beginning.
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