The sleepy Victorian seaside town of Llandudno in North Wales is famous for its goats; connections to Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll; and, most surprisingly, it is a UFO hotspot!
Photo credit: Llandudno pier by Patrick Metzdorf on Unsplash
In a study for Grolsch Beer, UFO expert and former MoD employee responsible for investigating UFOs and other unexplained phenomena, Nick Pope, named Llandudno's Great Orme as one of the most likely place to be abducted by aliens in the UK.
During the first UK-wide lockdown Llandudno made the news around the World when the goats that normally live on the Great Orme were filmed venturing in to the town. For many it was just a cute story that gave some light relief in what was otherwise a very dark and uncertain time. But for many locals it was deemed a sign that all was not well.
A Llandudno man, who wished to remain nameless, said: "Unexplained lights and unusual flying objects are regularly seen on or over the mountain.
"When that happens the goats, who live wild on the Orme and are normally quite content, come down in to the town where its safer."
In 1997, a family driving near the Orme reportedly lost several hours when their car was engulfed in a strange light that came from a purple aircraft that hovered above them. Terrified, they tried to outrun the craft. When they finally broke free of the light they looked back to see no trace of the UFO and discovered that five hours had passed in what felt like only a few minutes.
Too afraid to be identified; they reported their terrifying experience to the RAF, who have a base on the island of Anglesey just 30-minutes drive from the seaside town. They told them not to speak about the incident. The following day, the male driver of the car says he started suffering from tooth problems. On visiting his dentist, a black unidentifiable object was removed from his mouth and was deemed the cause of his discomfort.
A local businessman, who was walking along the seafront at around the same time, also reported seeing something hovering above the Orme and described it as initially looking like a "giant spinning top" before it transformed in to more of a sphere shape and flying off above the clouds. For several days leading up to the incident with the family in the car, an elderly man who lived on the Little Orme reported seeing unusual lights over Llandudno coming from the sky that he’d never seen before and couldn’t explain. He also reported losing several hours one night.
Back in January 1982 in the town of Colwyn Bay, Alex Brereton, who was a student at boarding school Rydal Penrhos, claims to have seen a white fuzzy object hovering in the sky outside his dorm window.
The event happened between the hours of 1am and 2am when Alex woken by a strange loud noise. Initially he thought it was a plane, but when he looked out of his window he saw "this white rocket that was really bright" in the sky. Alex quickly reached for his glasses to get a better look. By the time he'd got them the UFO had stopped moving and was hovering over the town with flashing lights.
Alex said that eventually the unidentified craft appeared to change into a ball shape before speeding away. Looking back on the incident, he said, "I should have woken someone I suppose. Only I didn't think".
That same night others from the town came forward with similar experiences to that of Alex, including security guard Stephen Jones who reported seeing a brightly lit rocket shaped object flying through the sky when he'd gone out to do his round at 1:30am. When he'd got back to his security cabin his watch read 2am, yet the clock in the cabin read 3:30am.
And most recently, in March 2015, Llandudno residents Robert and Susie Hale reported seeing a strange and unusual Easter egg shaped object in the sky above their home in Ffordd Elisabeth close to the Great Orme. The couple described the object as gliding through the sky before making sudden jumping manoeuvres and transforming into a spherical object before speeding away into the clouds.
Weeks later during a walk along a footpath leading to the summit of the Great Orme they once again claimed to spot a UFO, this time describing it as a vivid ball of light which hovered above them. Over the coming months, the couple reported a further two sightings of the strange objects in Llandudno.
Susie commented on the sightings saying, “We never used to believe in these things but we are seeing them so often that we’ve changed our minds.”
An alien by Brian McMahon on Unsplash
There have been unconfirmed reports of strange objects being found on the Orme over the years that many locals believe to be of alien origin. These include ancient artefacts that appear to be depictions of what has been described as spacemen, unidentifiable egg-like objects, and unusual skeletal parts including a skull with an abnormally elongated cranium.
The museum is currently working to locate these objects in the hopes to gain access to them in order to study them further. If anyone has any information regarding the whereabouts of these or any similar artefacts please do not hesitate to get in touch.
We are also extremely interested in hearing about any encounters you may have had with UFOs.