Did New Elgin Have Morayshire's Strangest Encounter?

Introduction

The New Elgin entity report is Morayshire’s most striking close-encounter story: two ten-year-old girls said that, on 18 May 1977, they saw a metallic object and a silver-clad figure near a disused railway line on the edge of New Elgin. It matters because, unlike many local UFO entries, it included named child witnesses, family sound witnesses, police contact, an investigator, a site visit and reported ground or tree effects. It also remains fragile. The strongest account appeared later through UFO investigators rather than through a fully preserved official case file, and the physical evidence trail was already weakened by delay, uncertainty and lost samples. Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos.+2Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos. [ignaciodarnaude.es]ignaciodarnaude.esIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-MarcosIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos

For this page, Morayshire is used in the historic-county sense: Moray, also known as Elginshire, with Elgin as its county town on the south coast of the Moray Firth. [Wikishire]wikishire.co.ukOpen source on wikishire.co.uk.

What the girls said they saw

The core report places Karen McLennan and Fiona Morrison, both aged ten, near an old disused railway track behind a pub at about 6.30 pm. According to the later catalogue account, they heard a strange humming noise, went towards a wooded area, and saw a long cylindrical object with rounded ends, a small dome on top, a steady red light and a rotating red band around its lower section. The object was described as polished metallic, with no visible doors, windows or markings. [Intcat]intcat.blogspot.com1977 jan june1977 jan june

Jenny Randles’ Flying Saucer Review article gives the case its best-known investigative form. It says the initial lead came after an appeal in the Sunday Post, when the investigator Bryan Hartley received a letter from Caroline McLennan, Karen’s mother. Randles reported that written statements and lengthy telephone interviews were obtained, and that local police and media were consulted, although an on-the-spot investigation was not possible at first because of the distance involved. [Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos.]ignaciodarnaude.esIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-MarcosIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos

The reported “entity” is the part that gives the case its lasting force. The girls said a tall, thin figure stood beside the object, partly obscured by bushes, dressed all in silver. One account gives the figure’s height as about 1.8 metres and says no facial features were visible; Randles’ article adds that Karen compared it to a telegraph pole, apparently because it looked thin and straight rather than because it resembled a normal person. When the figure appeared to move towards them, the girls ran, looked back after a few seconds, and said the figure had disappeared while the object remained. [Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos.]ignaciodarnaude.esIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-MarcosIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos

The object’s departure is one of the more unusual details. Rather than simply rising or shooting away, it was said to move off in three jerky steps before accelerating out of sight. Randles treated that as one reason the account did not sound like a simple copy of standard “flying saucer” imagery, although that is an argument about narrative texture, not proof that the event happened as described. [Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos.]ignaciodarnaude.esIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-MarcosIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos

The humming sound and reported traces

The strongest supporting element is not another visual witness to the object or figure, but the sound. The girls’ mothers, Caroline McLennan and Maureen Morrison, were both said to have heard the humming noise. Randles’ account says Mrs McLennan thought it sounded like a vacuum cleaner, while Mrs Morrison likened it to a humming noise; other estate residents reportedly heard it too, although no one else was identified as having seen the object. [Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos.]ignaciodarnaude.esIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-MarcosIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos

This matters because it moves the case beyond a simple two-child sighting, but only partly. A sound heard by adults could support the idea that something unusual was happening in the area, yet it does not independently establish what the girls saw. Humming could come from machinery, aircraft, electrical equipment, road activity, work near the railway track, or an ordinary source mislocated by listeners. The police were reportedly contacted, took a statement and looked into the matter, but found no clear cause. [Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos.]ignaciodarnaude.esIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-MarcosIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos

The reported physical traces are more intriguing but weaker. The next day, Mrs McLennan and the children visited the woods and found what was described as a circular area about 100 yards in diameter with minor damage to trees; some young trees were said to have appeared singed. Randles noted that many possible causes could have been responsible and that samples were being analysed, but the site examination came roughly three months after the event, limiting the value of any trace claim. [Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos.]ignaciodarnaude.esIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-MarcosIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos

Later catalogue summaries make the weakness sharper: they say samples were taken but were lost in the post. That small detail matters. It means the most potentially testable part of the case — the alleged physical after-effect — did not become a preserved, independently reviewable laboratory result. The evidence trail therefore narrows back to witness testimony, reported sound, police contact and the investigators’ judgement. [Intcat]intcat.blogspot.com1977 jan june1977 jan june

Why the timing makes the trail awkward

The incident was said to have happened on 18 May 1977, but Randles’ article states that there were problems remembering the exact date because the case reached the investigator almost two months later. With help from police information, the date was narrowed to 18 May. That delay does not disprove the report, but it makes reconstruction harder: memories settle, family retellings can shape details, and ordinary local events that might explain a sound or light become more difficult to check. [Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos.]ignaciodarnaude.esIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-MarcosIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos

The May 1977 timing also places New Elgin in a wider British context. INTCAT’s chronological catalogue lists other close-encounter and humanoid-type claims around Britain during the same period, including the well-known Welsh wave of 1977 and another Scottish sighting at Stonehaven two days after New Elgin. That does not mean the cases are connected. It does show that New Elgin was being recorded during a period when British UFO investigators were already alert to child-witness, landed-object and silver-suited-figure reports. [Intcat]intcat.blogspot.com1977 jan june1977 jan june

That context cuts both ways. It may explain why investigators took the story seriously, but it also raises the possibility of expectation, contagion or motif-sharing. The silver suit, dome-topped craft, red light and frightened children are all recognisable UFO-story elements of the period. Randles argued that some details were unusual enough to count in the girls’ favour, but a cautious reader should treat that as an assessment by a UFO investigator, not as independent confirmation. [Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos.]ignaciodarnaude.esIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-MarcosIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos

Where the disused railway fits

The setting is one reason the story has endured. A disused railway line, woods, fencing and a new housing estate form a believable edge-of-town landscape: close enough for children to play there, but secluded enough for a strange sighting to feel plausible. The former Morayshire Railway between Elgin and Lossiemouth had opened in 1852 and closed to passengers in 1964 and freight in 1966, so a disused railway environment near Elgin in the 1970s fits the local landscape rather than being an invented exotic backdrop. [scotways.com]scotways.comOpen source on scotways.com.

That does not identify the exact spot with certainty. The case descriptions refer to “New Elgin”, fields, woods, fencing, a pub and an old track, but later retellings often compress those details. For a county UFO history, the point is not to turn the site into a tourist marker; it is to understand why the geography mattered to the evidence. A railway cutting or trackbed could distort sightlines, carry sound, conceal ordinary activity, or make a hovering object appear lower or nearer than it was. [Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos.]ignaciodarnaude.esIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-MarcosIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos

The same landscape also complicates any “landing trace” claim. Minor tree damage in a wooded edge zone can have many causes, especially when examined weeks or months later. Without photographs, mapped measurements, retained samples and a clear chain of custody, the trace evidence cannot carry the weight that later UFO retellings sometimes place on it. [Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos.]ignaciodarnaude.esIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-MarcosIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos

Why the evidence remains fragile

The New Elgin case has several features that make it stronger than a casual light-in-the-sky report: named primary witnesses, a fairly detailed object description, an associated figure, adult witnesses to a sound, police contact and a follow-up by UFO investigators. It is therefore reasonable to treat it as a notable Morayshire case rather than a throwaway anecdote. Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos.+2Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos. [ignaciodarnaude.es]ignaciodarnaude.esIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-MarcosIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos

Yet each supporting feature has a weakness. The two visual witnesses were children. The adult corroboration appears to concern the sound, not the object or figure. The police involvement, as reported, did not produce an identified cause but also did not produce a public official conclusion confirming anything extraordinary. The physical traces were seen too late and the samples were not preserved. The date itself had to be reconstructed after delay. Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos.+2Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos. [ignaciodarnaude.es]ignaciodarnaude.esIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-MarcosIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos

There is also a documentation problem. The Ministry of Defence did keep UFO report files from this period, and The National Archives guide says the DEFE 24 series contains the majority of surviving reports and public correspondence from 1977 onwards. However, the widely available New Elgin trail is centred on specialist UFO literature rather than a clearly cited MoD case file for this incident. That absence is not proof that no report existed, but it does mean the case cannot be upgraded on the basis of official documentation alone. [National Archives]cdn.nationalarchives.gov.ukNational Archives Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOsNational Archives Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs

Later publication history adds another layer. INTCAT lists Randles’ original Flying Saucer Review article, a later Patricia Donaldson “Postscript to New Elgin”, and subsequent book and catalogue references; a bibliographic listing of Flying Saucer Review volume 26 number 2 confirms that Donaldson’s postscript appeared in the August 1980 issue. This shows that the case was revisited, but not that later reporting solved it. [Intcat]intcat.blogspot.com1977 jan june1977 jan june

What can fairly be concluded

The fairest conclusion is that New Elgin remains an unresolved but weakly evidenced close-encounter report. It is not in the same category as a proven hoax, because the surviving accounts include frightened child witnesses, family corroboration of a sound, and some police contact. Nor is it a strong evidential case, because the parts that could have strengthened it — exact site data, timely investigation, photographs, preserved samples, independent visual witnesses and official records — are either missing, late, unclear or unavailable in the public trail. Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos.+2Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos. [ignaciodarnaude.es]ignaciodarnaude.esIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-MarcosIgnacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos

Within Morayshire’s UFO history, its importance is therefore interpretive rather than evidentially decisive. It shows how a local edge-of-town incident can become a county landmark when it contains the elements UFO readers remember: children, a landed object, a silver figure, a strange sound and possible traces. It also shows why the evidence trail matters as much as the story. The more closely the New Elgin report is followed from claim to investigation to later retelling, the more it looks like a fascinating local case that deserves careful preservation, not confident belief.

Amazon book picks

Further Reading

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Endnotes

1. Source: ignaciodarnaude.es
   Title: Ignacio Darnaude Rojas-Marcos
   Link: https://ignaciodarnaude.es/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/RandlesHumanoid-1977ScotlandFSR77V23N4.pdf

2. Source: scotways.com
   Link: https://scotways.com/heritage-path/HP288/

3. Source: intcat.blogspot.com
   Title: 1977 jan june
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4. Source: wikishire.co.uk
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5. Source: wikishire.co.uk
   Link: https://wikishire.co.uk/wiki/Elgin

6. Source: cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk
   Title: National Archives Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs)
   Link: https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/aug-2011-research-guide.pdf

7. Source: nationalarchives.gov.uk
   Link: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/ufos/

8. Source: amazon.co.uk
   Title: Flying Saucer Review
   Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flying-Saucer-Review-Vol-February-ebook/dp/B01N4V1ULN?tag=searcht-20

9. Source: amazon.co.uk
   Title: Flying Saucer Review
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10. Source: facebook.com
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11. Source: amazon.com
    Title: Flying Saucer Review
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12. Source: amazon.com
    Title: Flying Saucer Review
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13. Source: cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk
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19. Source: cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    Link: https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/ufo-files-reveal-behind-the-scenes-of-the-ufo-desk.pdf

20. Source: nationalarchives.gov.uk
    Title: new-chat Archives
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21. Source: nationalarchives.gov.uk
    Title: Help with your research Archives
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22. Source: nationalarchives.gov.uk
    Title: Help with your research Archives
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23. Source: nationalarchives.gov.uk
    Title: Help with your research Archives
    Link: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/category/records-2/page/26/

24. Source: cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    Link: https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/videocast-transcript-12-07-12.pdf

25. Source: nationalarchives.gov.uk
    Title: Help with your research Archives
    Link: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/category/records-2/page/21/

26. Source: wikishire.co.uk
    Title: Historic Counties Trust
    Link: https://wikishire.co.uk/wiki/Historic_Counties_Trust

27. Source: wikishire.co.uk
    Title: Flag of Morayshire
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28. Source: Wikipedia
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29. Source: nuforc.org
    Link: https://nuforc.org/sighting/?id=27511

30. Source: find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk
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31. Source: register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk
    Title: charitycommission.gov.uk TH E HISTORIC COUNTIES TRUST
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32. Source: moray.gov.uk
    Title: Tourist Information
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33. Source: GOV.UK
    Title: celebrating the historic counties of england
    Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/celebrating-the-historic-counties-of-england/celebrating-the-historic-counties-of-england

Additional References

1. Source: youtube.com
   Title: Jenny Randles ‘The Rendlesham Forest Mystery’ (audio lecture)
   Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpIJxYNND6g
   Source snippet

   UK 1977 UFO humanoid close encounters school children Audio Recording of Witness's Terrifying UFO Sighting | UFO Witness | Travel Channel...

2. Source: youtube.com
   Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvnqMspr6u8
   Source snippet

   Jenny Randles 'The Rendlesham Forest Mystery' (audio lecture)...

3. Source: youtube.com
   Title: School kids on witnessing a landed UFO at their school in Broad Haven, Wales,
   Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T64jReeun3A
   Source snippet

   Interview on UFO sightings by children...

   Published: February 4, 1977

4. Source: academia.edu
   Link: https://www.academia.edu/104742302/60_YEARS_OF_NEGLECTED_EVIDENCE_ANALYSIA_OF_GLOBAL_HUMANOID_ENCOUNTER_REPORTS_1946_2006

5. Source: facebook.com
   Link: https://www.facebook.com/thenationalnewspaperscotland/posts/did-this-scot-really-have-a-close-encounter-with-a-ufo-/3241773246112694/

6. Source: facebook.com
   Link: https://www.facebook.com/61557031963306/photos/d41d8cd9/122301766814234398/

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   Link: https://gazetteer.org.uk/place/Elgin_CP%2C_Morayshire_318038

8. Source: libriufo.it
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