For those unfamiliar, Falkirk purportedly holds the most active UFO hotspot on the planet. Since the early 1990s, the Falkirk Triangle has had more than 3,000 sightings (roughly one sighting for every two people in the town). But with cameras on everyone's phones and global satellite constellations cluttering our orbit, I wanted to discover if these claims still hold up, or if this is just a lingering hangover from a 90s obsession.

Preconception

As a kid who used to watch reruns of the x-files with my dad and spent my youth searching "UFO SIGHTING REAL" on youtube, aliens are among my favored supernatural creatures. They are also widely agreed upon to be a more realistic theory by most scientists. It is generally assumed that the likelihood of humans being the only intelligent life in the universe is slim.

That being said, I was born just before the 2000s, right as "UFO mania" was beginning to cool off. My generation grew up with photoshop. Most of the "mysteries" I enjoyed growing up were eventually debunked by a bored teenager on reddit. When I hear "UFO," more often my mind wanders to the outlandish claims of government coverups that tend to dominate the narrative around this topic.

Research

To write this article, I had to look past my skepticism at the actual coverage on this topic.

Author Ron Halliday has documented thousands of cases in his book UFO Scotland, which served as an excellent point of reference for my jumping off point.

Halliday's writings also provided me with a good framework for understanding the credibility of these witnesses, to quote: "What makes many sightings stand out is they come from 'ordinary' men and women who had no reason to make anything up. We have had a police officer, people in professional jobs… they don't want to be branded 'loonies'."

To argue against this point, I would make the case that there are indeed many police officers, lawyers, even writers who are in fact as loony as they come — present company included. The intention to be seen as a credible source does not automatically make for a credible witness. Nonetheless, I took Halliday's advocacy with a certain level of good-faith.

There's an obvious difference between seeing a "spooky shape" in the woods and the sheer volume of reports coming out of Bonnybridge. Since 1992, there have been over 6,000 reported sightings.

The foundational myth of the Falkirk Triangle starts a little outside its border in Livingston, back in 1979. This is the Dechmont Woods Incident, and it is arguably one of the more credible UFO encounters in British history.

Robert Taylor, a forestry worker and by all accounts not your average 'loony', encountered a massive craft in a clearing. He described it as: "About 20 feet high, a spherical object... with a rim around it like the brim of a hat. There were these smaller spheres, like sea-mines, which seized me and were dragging me in the direction of the larger object." (Taylor, 1979)

Taylor lost consciousness and woke up with his trousers torn and a massive headache. After bringing his case to the Lothian and Borders Police the force opened a criminal investigation and treated the case as an assault. To this day, the case remains the only UFO incident in the UK to be the subject of an active police file.

Personally, I don't find myself especially compelled by the involvement of local authorities. If your local police department is anything like mine, you'll know that the UK police force is made up of just as many superstitious folk as any company. You'd be more likely to find a more rational lot in your local pub. Not only that, but the injuries sustained by Taylor are consistent with that of any other assault, and thus it's only natural that the department opened an investigation.

But the accounts don't end there. In 1992, Garry Wood and Colin Wright were driving on the A70 road when a disc-shaped object descended over their car. The pair described losing time during the incident. Investigator Malcolm Robinson of Strange Phenomena Investigations noted: "I soon discovered that the old adage about there being no smoke without fire holds true when it comes to the paranormal... In this particular case, I'm very much of the view that both men are sincere and honest witnesses." (Robinson, 2016)

It's important to note, Strange Phenomena Investigations is not some kind of omniscient entity. In fact, it's a paid service that has a vested interest in public belief in these matters. If I wanted to find independent accounts, I was going to have to look for it on an official scale. Thankfully, my search was answered by the involvement of Councillor Billy Buchanan.

Buchanan has spent decades lobbying every Prime Minister during his tenure for an official inquiry into why his constituents are being pinged by UFOs. His stance takes a curious approach mixed with mild frustration at the lack of official investigation on the subject. He stated: "How do we know aliens aren't walking about? I have no doubt that Bonnybridge is part of something exciting." (Buchanan, 2005)

Naturally though, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) eventually has to chime in to ruin the fun. For years, the MoD's stance has been a masterclass in bureaucratic "nothing to see here." Their standard response to Buchanan's frantic letters usually reads like this:

"The Ministry of Defence is satisfied that there is no evidence that the United Kingdom's airspace might have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised foreign military activity." (MoD, 1997)

Translation: "It's not a Russian spy plane, so we don't care if it's a Martian joyrider."

The MoD officially closed its UFO desk in 2009, claiming it served no defense purpose. This, of course, only fueled the fire for theorists. If there's nothing there, why did they have a desk for it for 50 years? And if there is something there, why stop looking now?

The engagement of a local politician is an interesting turn of events to say the least. I think that most people can name at least one elected official they see as having a few screws loose, but it's rare to see a councillor openly acknowledge their belief in extraterrestrial occurrences with such earnestness.

To me, it's a signal that the fear around the Falkirk Triangle is very real, even if the sightings themselves are questionable.

But now I have to put on my "sensible adult" hat for a moment. As much as I love the idea of a galactic hub being located right next to a Greggs, there are holes in the Triangle theory.

The Falkirk area is heavily industrial. Between the Grangemouth refinery (which flares gas and creates massive, weirdly shaped flames at night) and the high-intensity lights of the surrounding factories, there are plenty of "UFOs" that are more likely just oil and gas infrastructure.

Bonnybridge also sits directly under the flight paths for both Edinburgh and Glasgow airports. In tumultuous weather (As is quite common in Scotland) this can make distant landing lights appear to hover or dance.

Once a town gets a reputation for UFOs, people start looking at the sky more. When you look for something, you find it. Planes, planets, or even just birds suddenly become a "triangular craft."