Ilkley Moor UFO incident
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🛸 Case
Contents 6
| Type | Case (alleged abduction and photograph) |
|---|---|
| Also known as | The Ilkley Moor Alien |
| Date | Morning of 1 December 1987 |
| Place | Ilkley Moor (part of Rombalds Moor), West Yorkshire, England |
| Witness | "Philip Spencer" (pseudonym), retired police officer |
| Investigators | Peter Hough and Jenny Randles |
| Hypnosis | 16 March 1988, by Jim Singleton |
The Ilkley Moor UFO incident is the claim by a retired police officer, known by the pseudonym Philip Spencer, that on the morning of 1 December 1987 he met and photographed a small green being on Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire, England, and then saw a craft rise from the moor. Under hypnosis a few months later, he recalled being taken aboard the craft, examined and shown films before being returned to the moor.[1][2]
The photograph was widely covered in the British media and remains one of the country's most famous UFO images. Some UFO researchers cite it as evidence of extraterrestrial visitation, while others have called it "incredibly blurry", and sceptics suggest it shows a person or a cardboard cut-out. Its authenticity remains disputed.[1]
Background
Ilkley Moor is part of Rombalds Moor, the moorland between Ilkley and Keighley in West Yorkshire, rising to 402 metres (1,319 feet) and best known as the inspiration for the Yorkshire "county anthem" On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at. It has been the scene of many reported UFO sightings; sceptics attribute their frequency partly to the moor's closeness to the RAF Menwith Hill listening station and Leeds Bradford Airport.[1][2]
"Philip Spencer" had moved with his wife and child from London to West Yorkshire after retiring from the police, to live closer to his wife's family. On the morning of 1 December 1987 he set out to walk across Ilkley Moor to visit his father-in-law in East Morton, carrying a camera and a compass, the latter in case of fog.[1]
The encounter
According to Spencer, he was walking up a small hill when he noticed a figure on the path ahead. He described it as about 1.2 metres (4 feet) tall and dark green, with a disproportionately large head and long, thin arms. It rushed up the hill and gestured at him with one arm, which he took as a warning to keep away, but he photographed it before it ran off. He followed and lost sight of it in the fog, then saw a craft rise from the moor and disappear into the sky. He described it as whitish, made of two saucer-shaped sections joined along their wider surfaces, with a loud humming sound; another account describes it as a dome-topped craft that shot into the air at blinding speed. He did not photograph the craft.[1][2]
Instead of continuing on his planned route, Spencer went to another town about 30 minutes' walk away. When he arrived, he found that about two hours had passed, and that his compass was pointing the opposite way from the way it should.[1]
Investigation
In the days that followed, Spencer contacted the UFO researchers Jenny Randles and Peter Hough. Hough said he was "extremely sceptical" at first but came to believe him. Spencer gave Hough the copyright of the photograph and insisted on remaining anonymous, although the story quickly made the news; accounts of the case make clear he did not make any money from it.[1]
Hough examined the site and sent the photograph to several experts. A wildlife photographer said the figure was not any known animal, and experts at the Kodak laboratory in Hemel Hempstead said they could find no evidence of tampering. Bruce Maccabee, a U.S. Navy optics expert and ufologist, concluded that the image was "too grainy for proper testing". According to the ufologist Nick Redfern, the Ministry of Defence harassed Spencer a few days after the incident, opening a file on him and sending two "men in black" to his home to intimidate him into silence.[1]
The hypnosis session
While the photograph was being examined, Spencer said he was having strange dreams, and on Hough's advice he underwent regression hypnosis with Jim Singleton on 16 March 1988. Singleton has called the result a "genuine recall". Under hypnosis Spencer's story changed. He now said that on seeing the being on the hill he was instantly paralysed, lifted a few feet into the air and drawn into the craft, where a voice told him to be calm. A group of green beings performed medical examinations on him, inserting objects into his nose and mouth, gave him a tour of the craft and showed him a film of apocalyptic scenes, including nuclear explosions, famines and floods. He was shown a second film, whose contents he has never revealed, saying the beings do not want humanity to know.[1]
Spencer said he was then returned to the moor, where he took the photograph — and that the being had in fact been waving goodbye, not warning him away as in his original account.[1]
Reception
The incident made headlines in Britain at the time and remains one of the country's most famous UFO cases; it has been cited as one of the most persuasive ever reported. Nick Pope, a journalist who formerly worked on the Ministry of Defence's "UFO desk", included it in a 2011 list of the "Top 10 UFO incidents in the UK", and The Daily Telegraph also listed it among the top ten UK incidents that year.[1][2]
Sceptics have called the whole incident a hoax. They argue that the photograph is too blurred to prove anything and that the "alien" could easily be a man or a cardboard cut-out; they ask why Spencer photographed the being but not the craft, which would have been harder to fake; and they dismiss the reversed compass as evidence, noting that compasses are easy to damage by hand.[1]
References
- Ilkley Moor UFO incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Ilkley Moor — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Ilkley Moor UFO incident”, “Ilkley Moor”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 31 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
No discussion yet.