Retired Caretaker Reveals Scottish UFO Sighting After 50 Years of Silence
Alien Life & UFO/UAPs
Saturday 10th, August 2024
A retired primary school caretaker, Gordon Mackerracher, has come forward with a story of a UFO encounter that he has kept secret for five decades. The incident took place in 1974 when Mackerracher was just 17 years old, walking down a rural road in West Lothian, Scotland.
Mackerracher recounted that he was walking along a road connecting the villages of Kirknewton and East Calder after leaving the cottage of a girl he was dating at the time. He happened to look to his left and noticed a strange object in the sky. According to his description, the object was a brown, metallic conical structure, roughly the size of a caravan, and it was travelling in complete silence.
“I could see the moonlight shining off it”, Mackerracher recalled. “It was funny, as I don’t remember being scared when I watched it, although it is possible I was at the time”.
Not knowing what to make of the sighting, Mackerracher quickly made his way to a phone box on Langton Road, around 3.2 kilometres away, and called air traffic control at Edinburgh Airport to report what he had seen. However, the staff at the control tower informed him that no aircraft had entered or left the surrounding airspace in the past hour, and their radar had not captured anything unusual.
“At first, I thought it was maybe circling round to land at Edinburgh Airport, but obviously not”, he said. “I just told the controller that it didn’t matter and headed home.”.
Despite the extraordinary nature of the event, Mackerracher chose to keep the experience to himself for many years, concerned about the potential for ridicule. “I never told a soul. I was too scared because I did not want to be classed as an idiot, so I just kept quiet about it when I got back to my parents”, he explained. “Not once did I think my mind was playing tricks on me, as I knew exactly what I saw. I had no interest in UFOs at the time or even thought about them or anything like that”.
The first time Mackerracher opened up about the sighting was several years later when he shared the story with his wife Margaret, while they were watching a television programme that discussed extraterrestrial encounters. “The first time I mentioned it was after I got married and something came on TV about UFOs. I told my wife about the encounter, and she just said ‘okay’”, he said. He also told his son Ross about the incident, though neither his wife nor his son were particularly inclined to believe or disbelieve in UFOs.
It was only after reading Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World, which included a similar UFO sighting in Yorkshire around the same time, that Mackerracher felt more confident about sharing his story. The striking similarity between his experience and the one described in Clarke’s book reinforced his belief that what he saw was real.
Despite his growing confidence, Mackerracher has remained cautious about how he shares his story, still wary of being labelled as someone who believes in “space people”. However, his decision to come forward now adds another intriguing account to the many unexplained sightings reported over the years.
Mackerracher recounted that he was walking along a road connecting the villages of Kirknewton and East Calder after leaving the cottage of a girl he was dating at the time. He happened to look to his left and noticed a strange object in the sky. According to his description, the object was a brown, metallic conical structure, roughly the size of a caravan, and it was travelling in complete silence.
“I could see the moonlight shining off it”, Mackerracher recalled. “It was funny, as I don’t remember being scared when I watched it, although it is possible I was at the time”.
Not knowing what to make of the sighting, Mackerracher quickly made his way to a phone box on Langton Road, around 3.2 kilometres away, and called air traffic control at Edinburgh Airport to report what he had seen. However, the staff at the control tower informed him that no aircraft had entered or left the surrounding airspace in the past hour, and their radar had not captured anything unusual.
“At first, I thought it was maybe circling round to land at Edinburgh Airport, but obviously not”, he said. “I just told the controller that it didn’t matter and headed home.”.
Despite the extraordinary nature of the event, Mackerracher chose to keep the experience to himself for many years, concerned about the potential for ridicule. “I never told a soul. I was too scared because I did not want to be classed as an idiot, so I just kept quiet about it when I got back to my parents”, he explained. “Not once did I think my mind was playing tricks on me, as I knew exactly what I saw. I had no interest in UFOs at the time or even thought about them or anything like that”.
The first time Mackerracher opened up about the sighting was several years later when he shared the story with his wife Margaret, while they were watching a television programme that discussed extraterrestrial encounters. “The first time I mentioned it was after I got married and something came on TV about UFOs. I told my wife about the encounter, and she just said ‘okay’”, he said. He also told his son Ross about the incident, though neither his wife nor his son were particularly inclined to believe or disbelieve in UFOs.
It was only after reading Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World, which included a similar UFO sighting in Yorkshire around the same time, that Mackerracher felt more confident about sharing his story. The striking similarity between his experience and the one described in Clarke’s book reinforced his belief that what he saw was real.
Despite his growing confidence, Mackerracher has remained cautious about how he shares his story, still wary of being labelled as someone who believes in “space people”. However, his decision to come forward now adds another intriguing account to the many unexplained sightings reported over the years.
