Welsh UFO sightings revealed in latest government files

A UFO over St Tudwal's Islands was caught on a weather web cam

Details of UFO sightings across Wales in the last 25 years are revealed in files made public by the Ministry of Defence.

A UFO spotted over St Tudwal's Islands in the Llyn Peninsula in Gwynedd and a "slow-moving disc" seen at a festival in Llanfyllin, Powys, are included.

The 34 files released by the National Archives cover 1985 to 2007.

Accounts of sightings over Anglesey, Denbighshire, Cardiff and Swansea are also detailed.

The files include requests for information about UFO sightings in south Wales made by various newspapers and confirmation that a reported UFO incident over Swansea in 1998 was either RAF Sea Kings or Vampire planes.

The UFO spotted over the St Tudwal's Islands was caught on a weather web cam on 8 May, 2006 and said to be "hanging in the sky" by one spectator.

However, the MoD said the picture was not clear enough to conclude what it actually was and it had received no other UFO sightings for that date.

Airspace breached

The disc shape spotted at the music festival at Llanfyllin in Powys was reported to be four different colours - blue, green, white and orange - and was spotted by festival-goers as they waited to be picked up.

Witnesses said it was a few hundred feet in the air and was moving up and down in the sky "quite slowly" and their eyes were "glued" to the lights.

An MoD official responded, saying: "We are satisfied that there is no corroborating evidence to suggest that the United Kingdom's airspace was breached by unauthorised aircraft."

Another reported sighting in Bangor in on 26 August, 2000 involved a staff member from Coleg Menai, who contacted RAF Valley on Anglesey after seeing a "fireball or meteorite" facing the Snowdonia mountains.

The report states that after being spotted in the air, the object "followed a fairly shallow trajectory and then plunged into Llyn Cefni, which was down the slope from where we were sitting, and approximately 80m away.

"The object appeared much bigger than the houses and farm buildings which were on the opposite side of the lake, and towards the end of trajectory almost appeared to be flaming, rather than 'glowing'."

'Black and spinning'

This sighting was also dismissed by the MoD, as it was not corroborated by any other sightings.

Other highlights from the files include:

• MoD notes on the infamous Berwyn Mountains incident of 1974. Dubbed the Welsh Roswell, official files have previously shown it was dismissed as an earthquake and a meteor combining

• Confirmation that a UFO sighting in January 1974 reported in 2006 at Llandrillo in Denbighshire was probably a Canberra aircraft taking pictures of the area as part of a training exercise

• Response to a Freedom of Information request from 2005, listing all reported Welsh sightings for 2002-2005. These include "two round objects with legs, which were black and spinning" over the Rhondda in July 2003 and a "roundish, football-shaped object" over Maesteg in August 2003. There were also reports of a large round disc "slightly smaller than the moon", changing from creamy white to green over Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan in January 2003.

• A request by Labour MP Martin Caton about sightings of lights his constituents had reported over Swansea in October 1998. The MoD explained these were probably two Sea King helicopters, one from RAF Chivenor and one from RAF Valley, given permission to land at Swansea Airport on 8 October.

The files are available to download for free for a month from the National Archives website.