The Rendlesham Forest UFO
The Rendlesham Forest incident is one of the most famous UFO encounters in the UK. Several unexplained lights and objects were reported around Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk by multiple witnesses.
Where is Rendlesham Forest?
The clearing in Rendlesham Forest where evidence of a UFO landing was found. Photo: Wikipedia.
Rendlesham Forest is a 3,700 acre woodland reserve in Suffolk, England. It is owned by Forestry England and contains a number of recreational walking and mountain biking tracks as well as camping facilities.
The Rendlesham Forest Sightings
A map of where the Rendlesham Forest UFO incidents occurred. Photo: Wikipedia.
On the 26th of December 1980 at around 3am an RAF security patrol working at the RAF Woodbridge saw some unexplained lights descending into the nearby Rendlesham Forest.
The soldiers initially though it may be an aircraft that was in trouble. They went into the forest to investigate and found a glowing metallic object with several colored lights.
The soldiers tried to get closer to the object but it continued to dart in and out between the trees. Nearby farm animals were sent into a panic.
Shortly after 4am police arrived on the scene and found that the only lights they could see were from the nearby Orford Ness lighthouse, a few miles away on the coast.
After the daybreak the soldiers servicemen returned to the eastern edge of Rendlesham Forest where there was a small clearing. There they found burn marks on the trees, broken branches and impressions on the ground in the shape of a triangle.
At 10.30am the local police were called out again to see this evidence but the police believe it to just be damage caused by animals.
On the 28th of December Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt visited the clearing in Rendlesham Forest accompanied by a number of soldiers.
They measured the radiation levels at the site and received readings of 0.07 milliroentgens per hour which is slightly above background levels.
They recorded another spike in radiation about half a mile away from the clearing.
While they were out investigating the clearing in Rendlesham Forest the group saw a flashing light across a field to the east. The light was almost in line with a nearby farmhouse just as witnesses has described on the first night.
Later that day Halt described seeing three lights in the sky that resembled bright stars, two in the north and one in the south, just above the horizon.
Halt recounted that the lights hovered for around 3 hours and would occasionally release a stream of light down towards the ground.
Lieutenant Colonel Halt recorded his investigation on a cassette tape. You can listen to it here:
Possible Explanations
Some believe the incident is a good example of an extra-terrestrial visitation. Believers would claim this is a fairly textbook UFO sighting.
Local police believe that the soldiers were simply seeing the light from the nearby lighthouse and that the markings on the ground and trees were caused by rabbits.
The military determined that the incident was not a threat to nation security and stopped investigating leaving the actual cause of the incident to be inconclusive.
What do you think caused the Rendlesham Forest incident? Aliens or something more mundane? Le us know in the comments!
If you enjoyed this article you may also enjoy learning about the Varginha UFO incident or the mysterious Flatwoods Monster.
