Bonnybridge — the Falkirk Triangle

OVERVIEW

A village four miles west of Falkirk, beside the Antonine Wall and the Roman fort at Rough Castle, at the centre of what the press calls the Falkirk Triangle between Stirling, Fife and the edge of Edinburgh. Since the early 1990s residents have reported lights, discs and triangles in the sky at a rate the Falkirk Herald has put at hundreds a year; the councillor Billy Buchanan has campaigned for a government inquiry since 1992 and appealed to John Major, Tony Blair and David Cameron.

HISTORY

The first widely reported sighting was James Walker's in 1992 of a star-shaped object over the road; a public meeting in 1993 drew hundreds, and Falkirk council later discussed a UFO visitor centre. A former Ministry of Defence UFO desk officer who had dismissed the reports later apologised to the village in the Herald. Flight paths from Edinburgh and Glasgow airports, low-flying military aircraft and the village's own enthusiasm are the explanations most often given.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

The reports are in the local press and on television (Strange but True? in the 1990s, and documentaries since); none has been identified as anything but lights. The entry records the pattern and the campaign, not a conclusion.

VISITING

A public village; the canal towpath and Rough Castle are the places to stand. Residents have had thirty years of visitors.