Aberdeen, Scotland — 5 August 1748
Three globes of light
Eleven witnesses swore before the city council of Aberdeen they had observed three globes of light, men and armies in the sky, at 2 P.M. in a valley located five miles west of the city. They first assumed the three globes of light were meteorological in nature, but their intensity increased, and twelve tall men then appeared, dressed in bright clothes. They walked across the valley, followed by two armies that appeared to re-enact the battle of Culloden, near Inverness, which had taken place on 16 April 1746. In cases of “armies in the sky” and heavenly battles we generally suspect an aurora, but the timing of this sighting (early afternoon) excludes this interpretation.
Source: Flying Saucer Review 32, vol. 17, no. 6 (1971), citing a letter by Roger Sandell, in Culloden by John Prebble (chapter 7). Another letter dated September 5, 1748, relates this story and mentions the “three globes of light”. This source, signed R. F. (Robert Forbes), cites an extract from an older letter dated August 20, 1748, in which “a gentleman of Aberdeen” writes to his correspondent in Edinburgh about the visionary battle that took place on August 5, 1748. See The Lyon in mourning, a collection of speeches, letters, journals, etc. relative to the affairs of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, by the Rev. Robert Forbes, A.M., Bishop of Ross and Caithness, 1746-1775. Edited from his Manuscript by Henry Paton, vol. II (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 1895), 181-182. Case: W289