35 Years of Mystery
Calvine Team gather for anniversary talk
What is the truth about the Calvine sighting that has been proclaimed as ‘the world’s best UFO photograph’?
To mark the 35th anniversary of the unexplained sighting at Calvine, near Pitlochry in Perth & Kinross, a public talk will explore the mystery and the story behind the discovery of the only surviving print
I will be joined by other members of the Calvine research team for the event at Blair Atholl Village Hall on Saturday, 2 August from 4-6 PM.
My world exclusive story in the Daily Mail in 2022, sparked heated debate amongst believers and sceptics. It revealed for the first time a photograph showing a diamond shaped object shadowed by a military jet above the highlands.
The image was one of six colour photographs allegedly taken by two mystery men on the 4th August 1990 on the hills above Calvine. The images were handed to the Scottish Daily Record who passed them to the Ministry of Defence in London for analysis.
The identity of the photographer and the ultimate fate of the images after they were received by the MoD remains a mystery, despite further media coverage in the Daily Mail and The Guardian.
In 2021 I tracked down the RAF press officer for Scotland, Craig Lindsay, who handled the story at the time and had interviewed one of the witnesses who was working at a hotel in Pitlochry.
Mr Lindsay, who retired in 2000, had kept a print of ‘the best’ image of the six for more than 30 years. In 2022 he donated it to Special Collections at Sheffield Hallam University where it was analysed by photography expert Andrew Robinson.
At the public event Andrew will discuss the results of his detailed study of the print which he claims ‘is a genuine photograph of a scene before the camera’. Team members Matthew Illsley and Giles Stevens will add their unique perspectives on the story and what the two men saw.
Since the release of the photograph, that has since been featured in numerous publications, documentaries and on social media, a multitude of theories have been suggested to explain it. These include a secret military aircraft, a rock or piece of wood in a loch, a mountain top peeking out of clouds, or a hoax constructed using a model hanging close to the camera.
I first came across a poor-quality copy of the image whilst leading the release of the Ministry of Defence’s UFO archives at the National Archives in 2009. As soon as I saw the image, I knew it was something special and I’ve been hooked by the story ever since.
The Calvine UFO photo has become world famous and rivals the Loch Ness monster as an unsolved Scottish mystery. Currently it remains unsolved, and the final piece of the jigsaw is missing. It could be a hoax however it could also be a genuine photograph of an unidentified flying object.
We hope that people who live locally will come along to this event and make up their own minds about what really happened in 1990.
And we would love to hear from anyone with genuine new information that might help us solve the mystery - whatever that might be.
Free tickets for the event are available at the following URL and QR Code
