Culture Of Fear At UFO Bonnybridge?

[TinFinger]

as a means to attract visitors and tourism to the area

well i went there and found a small village with nothing but a very large electrical sub station at one end

cant see why someone would even imagine what they would gain in ppl on mass just driving through the place as theres nothing that would be in the towns interest.
its not like theres a load of cafes or places for the rush to be exploited
iirc these a garage at one end

imho its the electrical sub station thats the only odd thing ,on the ground,thats sets this village out from the rest.

from memory its a major outlet of electricity to the whole area,check the map at

http://maps.live.com/

 

[Anonymous]

But this is the thing, the phenomenon was there long before the media took an "interest" in the area. And has i said sightings took place before Buchanan was a councillor , so the argument doesnt stand up.

 

[Kondoru]

Perhaps the phenomena is so ordinary to them they dont notice it?

 

[Marsha Klein]

I grew up in Bonnybridge. The UFO sightings started in the '70's. I'm pretty sceptical about UFOs (or to be more precise whether UFOs = aliens) but I saw a couple of pretty weird things back in '76 and '79 that I can't explain. Back in those days most people would admit to having seen "something" that they couldn't quite explain. Sadly for the locals there was that idiot Billy Buchannan in the '90's who started banging on about being in touch with aliens and thereafter anyone with any sense kept schtum . The fear the original poster experienced is most likely fear of ridicule nothing more. Bonnybridge is a typical central Scottish town with it's roots in the Foundry business and the locals tend to be pretty no nonsense and not much given to the fey or otherworldly.

I moved away in 1981 but my dad still lives there and says that he continues to see the occasional odd thing in the sky. The town failed to capitalise on any interest (unlike Roswell or Rachel where you can't move for UFO tat and tourists) which is a shame as it might have given the town a much needed boost. The last time I was there it was sad to see how run down Bonnybridge Toll had become. Then again Buchannan's shenanigans had caused so much ridicule to be heaped on the town perhaps it's understandable that the locals wanted to distance themselves.

 

[johncbdg1]

I was doing a google search , and what i found curious was a lack of sites dedicated to the phenomenon happening at Bonnybridge up in Scotland. You would think that the level of sightings in Bonnybridge would be enough for someone to catalogue the history and promote the UFO issue at Bonnybridge . But alas..nothing.

I find this strange. I actually took a trip to Bonnybridge to do a nosy and what i found curious was the level of fear from the locals. In the pubs and cafes in the area ,there was a unusual level of fear that i found disturbing. Why would the locals behave in this way? The amount of people who would bring money into the area through the sightings would be beneficial. But they dont seem to want it. Its all very strange. And i thought that the abductee Gary Woods would have a sight on the internet, but Google doesnt register anything of that nature. Has the military/spooks played a part in this? Have the locals been exposed to more then they would actually want to know? And for the amount of reported sightings , why has their been no attempt to catalogue it properly?

Been in area searching the skies of boonybridge many times but still need to get footage from there,may be one time there was alot of sightings in area but not now may be people over there have stopped taking footage etc but i have never got footage from there todate but will keep trying.
Here is the latest from ufo scotland,real hot spot on going now.
Wednesday 6 oct 2010 around 7 pm object and plane.wtf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRZZJ2ibfVA
Object mystery spiral or cloud scotland 5 oct 2010 in the west sky.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQQE6n2hV7s
Venus Transit of the Sun ? and weird light flash.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBovFGzcxNo
UFObject above gorebridge midlothian at around 7.05pm 5 oct 2010.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cfwzDg3Xbk

Light object?,over gorebridge midlothian.scotland 25 sep 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESwropAY8ts

Ufos scotland,

 

[Marsha Klein]

Reading this post got me thinking about my own “UFO experiences” in Bonnybridge . Blimey…over 30 years ago! The first happened one evening in November ’77. I was 12 and home alone with my older brother. I had just gone out to get some coal from the bunker (well, it was the ‘70’s) when I saw in the distance a flattened dull red cigar shaped object. It was difficult to judge how far away it was, perhaps half a mile. I called my brother and we both watched it for 10-15 minutes whilst it hung motionless. It then started to move very slowly in the direction of Grangemouth and then suddenly shot off at very high speed. My dad arrived home about five minutes later and had seen the same thing as he was walking home.

The second incident wasn’t a sighting but a hearing. It was New Year’s eve 1979 at about 11.30pm. There was a sound that I can only describe as being like scores of WWII style bombers flying overhead. The entire street was out looking at the sky but the cloud level prevented us from seeing anything. The noise lasted for about 5 minutes then stopped suddenly.

As I said in my earlier post, Bonnybridge is not the sort of place given to flights of supernatural fancy (although that being said there’s a great poltergeist story in my family and my uncle once disturbed what he described as a black mass as he walked home one night through the woods towards Stenhousemuir. ) It was just a shame that the locals didn’t feel able to be more open about that they saw but Billy Buchannan’s nonsense put an end to that.

I recently asked my dad if there were still sightings. He looked a bit cagey and said, “yeah, but we don’t talk about them any more”

 

[Dingo667]

The second incident wasn’t a sighting but a hearing. It was New Year’s eve 1979 at about 11.30pm. There was a sound that I can only describe as being like scores of WWII style bombers flying overhead. The entire street was out looking at the sky but the cloud level prevented us from seeing anything. The noise lasted for about 5 minutes then stopped suddenly.

Somewhere on here I wrote about this already but I had the same living in Brighton. About 1998 or 99. It was in the middle of the night [around 3 o'clock] so not your usual plane flying time. There was a massive thunderstorm and when we looked out of the window the clouds were hanging low and everything seemed tinted red from the clouds. There was this extremely loud humming noise [see above], which lasted for minutes, far longer than it would take a plane to fly over [and if it was a plane, it must have been the mother of all planes]. Is there a known meteorological explanation for this noise?

Aaand back to the original thread, sorry...

 

[Zilch5]

Is there a known meteorological explanation for this noise?

Aaand back to the original thread, sorry...

Hmm - maybe yes. One thing I remember moving from Europe (Germany) to Australia were the first thunderstorms here. They thunder A LOT longer than the ones I was used to back there. They totally freaked me out - especially the ones that just cracked thunder and lightning without rain.

Maybe these were unusual for the place type of thunder storms? Just a thought.

 

[Bigphoot2]

An article about an upcoming Radio Scotland documentary about the effect the UFO flap has had on the local community in Bonnybridge

‘There was talk of a UFO theme park. But we got the Kelpies instead’​

By Paul English
May 29, 2022, 8:05 am

When Dave Gray and Kris Cummins were teenagers, they set out to make a documentary about people who stood in fields at night looking for UFOs hovering through Central Scotland.
“We were in the mindset of thinking these people were stupid, we were being a bit: ‘Ha, ha ha, isn’t this funny?’” said Cummins. “Now we can see what happened. And it’s more poignant than we ever thought it could be.”
They are from the quiet village of Bonnybridge which became a punchline – the Roswell of Stirlingshire – with thousands of reports of unidentified flying objects. And a chorus of sniggers, echoing across the universe.
Now the pair have achieved their teenage ambition – making a documentary about the 30th anniversary of the first sighting of a UFO over Bonnybridge with producer Gus Beattie, also from the community near Falkirk.

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/there-was-talk-of-a-ufo-theme-park-but-we-got-the-kelpies-instead/

 

[Paul_Exeter]

An article about an upcoming Radio Scotland documentary about the effect the UFO flap has had on the local community in Bonnybridge

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/there-was-talk-of-a-ufo-theme-park-but-we-got-the-kelpies-instead/

"Yet the men argue the mysteries of the lights in the sky gave the town something it has since lost. Gray said: “I think that UFO aspect was a glue which held some of the community together. My gran laments the fact that she used to walk down to the shops and be able to speak to everyone.”

For Cummins, it is symptomatic of something spotted in small working-class communities across the country.

He said: “If you look at when it happened culturally there was a lot of UFO stuff going on at the time, X-Files had come to prominence and there were lots of movies about aliens.

“It came at a specific moment in the UK’s history when localism started to die. If you look at the UFO phenomena in the 1990s it was the last moment that a place like this felt like a community. When the media descended on the village people stuck together – a lot of people were ridiculed, but for the most part the community had an identity for the first time in a long while.

“Since that phenomenon died out, it’s just not there any more.”"

Great analysis and I look forward to finding this on BBC iPlayer.

For anyone wanting to look into the Bonnybridge cases I recommend Malcolm Robinson's UFO Case Files of Scotland books that are available for a most reasonable price on Kindle. He was internal to what was going on at the time. One prominent sighting was, with hindsight, a military drone (sounded like a drone, looked like a drone, moved like a drone) but seen before such technology was widely known about. However, I don't pretend to have any answers for the majority of sightings.

 

[Min Bannister]

There was talk of a UFO theme park. But we got the Kelpies instead​

They say that like it is a bad thing but they got a bargain if you ask me!

 

[BS3]

"Yet the men argue the mysteries of the lights in the sky gave the town something it has since lost. Gray said: “I think that UFO aspect was a glue which held some of the community together. My gran laments the fact that she used to walk down to the shops and be able to speak to everyone.”

For Cummins, it is symptomatic of something spotted in small working-class communities across the country.

He said: “If you look at when it happened culturally there was a lot of UFO stuff going on at the time, X-Files had come to prominence and there were lots of movies about aliens.

“It came at a specific moment in the UK’s history when localism started to die. If you look at the UFO phenomena in the 1990s it was the last moment that a place like this felt like a community. When the media descended on the village people stuck together – a lot of people were ridiculed, but for the most part the community had an identity for the first time in a long while.

“Since that phenomenon died out, it’s just not there any more.”"

Great analysis and I look forward to finding this on BBC iPlayer.

For anyone wanting to look into the Bonnybridge cases I recommend Malcolm Robinson's UFO Case Files of Scotland books that are available for a most reasonable price on Kindle. He was internal to what was going on at the time. One prominent sighting was, with hindsight, a military drone (sounded like a drone, looked like a drone, moved like a drone) but seen before such technology was widely known about. However, I don't pretend to have any answers for the majority of sightings.

One key point might be that the small airport at Cumbernauld opened in (I think) 1989, which would have greatly increased the number of lights in the sky people saw.

The axis of the runway at Cumbernauld lines up roughly with Bonnybridge town, which means that landing lights might have been especially prominent.

 

[maximus otter]

One key point might be that the small airport at Cumbernauld opened in (I think) 1989, which would have greatly increased the number of lights in the sky people saw.

The axis of the runway at Cumbernauld lines up roughly with Bonnybridge town, which means that landing lights might have been especially prominent.

maximus otter

 

[BS3]

It came at a specific moment in the UK’s history when localism started to die. If you look at the UFO phenomena in the 1990s it was the last moment that a place like this felt like a community. When the media descended on the village people stuck together – a lot of people were ridiculed, but for the most part the community had an identity for the first time in a long while.

This is a really important observation which might go some way towards answering the question "why Bonnybridge". I know I've gone on about this before, but ufologists overlook the sociological aspect of the UFO phenomenon at their peril.

Perhaps there's a perception that focusing on the psychosocial aspects of the phenomenon is ignoring its 'reality'. I'd disagree with that - perhaps there is a genuine yet-to-be described phenomenon at the root of some cases, but it's important to look at the way people give shape to it.

Which was the first widely reported case at Bonnybridge? I've seen a few mentions of a sighting by a fire crew at Gardrum Moss in 1989, which seems to be traceable to one of the witnesses Robert Muir via Malcolm Robinson, but was this reported at all at the time?

 

[BS3]

Right I'm just trying to find a couple of Bonnybridge sightings to check against the proximity (or otherwise) of the airport.

Let's look at the Procek sighting, 15 Jan 93, 8:35pm. Robinson describes this as "one of the best". He states Mr and Mrs Procek were travelling along the A80 (typically, he doesn't mention which direction, but they are said to be on their way to Westwood in Glasgow, so we need to assume westwards I guess) and spot lights, perceived as attached to a triangle type UFO, as they approach the Castlecary Viaduct.

The thing is that despite the imprecise details given, you can see from looking at a map that Castlecary is just to the east of Cumbernauld airport. Indeed the triangle is said to have its nose "pointing west" - ie in the direction of the airport runway from where the Proceks were. Did anyone think to check whether anything landed at Cumbernauld in that time frame? Robinson doesn't say if a misperceived aircraft was discounted, and therefore appears to rely on the witnesses perception that the craft was not "conventional".

 

[Paul_Exeter]

Right I'm just trying to find a couple of Bonnybridge sightings to check against the proximity (or otherwise) of the airport.

Let's look at the Procek sighting, 15 Jan 93, 8:35pm. Robinson describes this as "one of the best". He states Mr and Mrs Procek were travelling along the A80 (typically, he doesn't mention which direction, but they are said to be on their way to Westwood in Glasgow, so we need to assume westwards I guess) and spot lights, perceived as attached to a triangle type UFO, as they approach the Castlecary Viaduct.

The thing is that despite the imprecise details given, you can see from looking at a map that Castlecary is just to the east of Cumbernauld airport. Indeed the triangle is said to have its nose "pointing west" - ie in the direction of the airport runway from where the Proceks were. Did anyone think to check whether anything landed at Cumbernauld in that time frame? Robinson doesn't say if a misperceived aircraft was discounted, and therefore appears to rely on the witnesses perception that the craft was not "conventional".

I quite like Malcolm Robinson as I believe his is a decent, honest person and he comes across well in various podcasts. I have read all of his books to date and from what I paid for them he isn't out to make money from the UFO phenomenon...! However, his work suffers from a great deal of conformation bias as he is a true believer in the ETH hypothesis (nuts and bolts spacecraft piloted by aliens).

When you dig a little deeper into his best cases you will start to see cracks appear (and I don't mean like those found on a recently crashed UFO ). For example, he promoted the Fife incident, in which a Scottish family of four claimed to have witnessed UFO activity at night, including aliens moving about above the ground in illuminated pods. What transpires from other investigations is that this event took place when these four X-Files fanatics had been into town to buy, a UFO magazine. On their way home they then witnessed the lights of nighttime pea harvesting from across some fields and woodland and in their fevered imaginations saw multiple illuminated alien craft and aliens in flying pods.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/new...pert-20th-anniversary-infamous-fife-incident/

 

[Paul_Exeter]

*bump*

Malcolm Robinson has now released a stand alone book of the Fife incident:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BNGRZFHG?linkCode=gg2&tag=theanomalist

It is only £1.99 on Kindle so I will be buying it, however sadly I doubt it will change my mind about the rational explanation for what they witnessed whilst in a bit of a UFO frenzy

 

[Paul_Exeter]

Edit: found this video of pea harvesting at night:

Lots and lots of lights at different heights and moving in different directions. It was actually a local who read of the "UFOs' and realised they had witnessed the pea harvesting, this was after they took a trip into town to buy a UFO magazine

 

[Paul_Exeter]

Malcolm Robinson interviewed on the Falkland HIll incident for the Monsters & Mysteries Podcast:

https://audioboom.com/posts/8225845...kland-hill-ufo-incident-with-malcolm-robinson

Recommended listening, especially if it is a dark and stormy night like where I am right now... Malcolm is an engaging interviewee and quite frank and honest. he doesn't hold back that the young boy of the family made some extraordinary claims after the night of the sightings. Also, there was other Fortean goings-on art their home in the form of a ghost dog, reflecting other major UFO cases.

I still believe it was nighttime pea harvesting and some over active imaginations.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

Just to add, the little boy witness in this case later claimed that a grey alien journeyed with him to school but that no one else could see it. The grey alien then helped the boy with his school work.

Malcolm Robinson admits this sounds unbelievable but also states his believes all the witness testimony. I only just realised today that this is basically the plot of ET seen through a young child’s perception, that is in the film ET is using psychic powers to ‘be with‘ the boy at school, whereas in this case the alien is there but invisible

 

[Paul_Exeter]

An article on the case with some images of the location:

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/new...t-did-aliens-land-in-north-east-fife-in-1996/

Another detail of this case that is problematic is the level of detail given by the witnesses despite it being at night and the distances involved

 

[Carse]

An article on the case with some images of the location:

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/new...t-did-aliens-land-in-north-east-fife-in-1996/

Another detail of this case that is problematic is the level of detail given by the witnesses despite it being at night and the distances involved

A thing that has always troubled me about the Newton Of Falkland case is that the Paps of Fife - East Lomond (also called Falkland Hill) and West Lomond - are very prominent points on the landscape which can be seen for many miles around. If an enormous brightly lit UFO was hovering over East Lomond for an extended time in the evening then you would expect hundreds, if not thousands, of people to have witnessed it but as far as I’m aware there have never been any independent reports.

The witnesses’ prior interest in UFOs is a red flag for me, along with their apparent move away from Scotland and subsequently becoming uncontactable. The high strangeness aspect is rare in a Scottish UFO case and it actually ended up more like a poltergeist type manifestation with the alledged odd things happening around the young boy.

Thinking about pea harvesting, this is prime pea and bean country. Bruce of Meigle (https://brucefarms.co.uk/our-produce/) and East Coast Viners (http://www.eastcoastviners.co.uk/) grow and harvest thousands of hectares of peas all over the east coast from the Mearns right down through Strathmore, Angus, Fife and Perthshire. They work 24 hours a day and use a fleet of 6 or 8 huge FMC viner machines, which travel in convoy between fields, along with rigid tipper lorries, tractors and other support vehicles (ECV use an old fire engine used to wash out the viners every 6 hours, complete with blue flashing lights as reported by the witnesses in the case…). The peas are taken to a huge chilled warehouse in Dundee for freezing within an hour and a half of being picked. Pea harvesting is a brightly lit, noisy, smelly, colourful and frantic activity; September is at the end of the harvest season but it certainly strikes me as being a very good fit for what was seen that night, assuming they did actually see lights in the field.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

A thing that has always troubled me about the Newton Of Falkland case is that the Paps of Fife - East Lomond (also called Falkland Hill) and West Lomond - are very prominent points on the landscape which can be seen for many miles around. If an enormous brightly lit UFO was hovering over East Lomond for an extended time in the evening then you would expect hundreds, if not thousands, of people to have witnessed it but as far as I’m aware there have never been any independent reports.

The witnesses’ prior interest in UFOs is a red flag for me, along with their apparent move away from Scotland and subsequently becoming uncontactable. The high strangeness aspect is rare in a Scottish UFO case and it actually ended up more like a poltergeist type manifestation with the alledged odd things happening around the young boy.

Thinking about pea harvesting, this is prime pea and bean country. Bruce of Meigle (https://brucefarms.co.uk/our-produce/) and East Coast Viners (http://www.eastcoastviners.co.uk/) grow and harvest thousands of hectares of peas all over the east coast from the Mearns right down through Strathmore, Angus, Fife and Perthshire. They work 24 hours a day and use a fleet of 6 or 8 huge FMC viner machines, which travel in convoy between fields, along with rigid tipper lorries, tractors and other support vehicles (ECV use an old fire engine used to wash out the viners every 6 hours, complete with blue flashing lights as reported by the witnesses in the case…). The peas are taken to a huge chilled warehouse in Dundee for freezing within an hour and a half of being picked. Pea harvesting is a brightly lit, noisy, smelly, colourful and frantic activity; September is at the end of the harvest season but it certainly strikes me as being a very good fit for what was seen that night, assuming they did actually see lights in the field.

Spot on.

It is hard not to like Malcolm Robinson and he is engaging to listen to on podcasts. However, he lacks impartiality and to him it is all nuts-and-bolts alien craft and grey aliens, even when a local man points out that pea harvesting was taking place in those very fields.

That said, it is one of Scotland's and the wider UK's most controversial UFO cases and have now sat down to read his book to see if I learn anything which might challenge my skepticism...

So, the case came to Malcolm's attention via Gary Woods (A70 Abduction witness) who alerted him to a case being researched by Tony Dodd, a former Police officer who had experienced a quite magnificent UFO encounter whilst on patrol with a colleague late at night on a lonely moor (where else?):

https://colinandrews.net/TonyDoddPassing.html

 

[BS3]

What interests me about these 'dubious' cases (eg with stuff that should have been witnessed by many people but wasn't, obvious borrowings from films etc) is the possibility that the witnesses aren't consciously making it up, but at some level really 'experienced' the events, or thought they did. Particularly when there are several witnesses, as here. What purpose do the 'aliens' fulfil in that case? Are we looking at a sort of collective waking dream, or something even stranger? This is where I could almost believe the 'parapsychological' hypothesis.

 

[Reverend D]

Spot on.

It is hard not to like Malcolm Robinson and he is engaging to listen to on podcasts. However, he lacks impartiality and to him it is all nuts-and-bolts alien craft and grey aliens, even when a local man points out that pea harvesting was taking place in those very fields.

That said, it is one of Scotland's and the wider UK's most controversial UFO cases and have now sat down to read his book to see if I learn anything which might challenge my skepticism...

So, the case came to Malcolm's attention via Gary Woods (A70 Abduction witness) who alerted him to a case being researched by Tony Dodd, a former Police officer who had experienced a quite magnificent UFO encounter whilst on patrol with a colleague late at night on a lonely moor (where else?):

https://colinandrews.net/TonyDoddPassing.html

My opinion is that Malcolm's books could do with an editor to polish up the prose a bit, but honestly, even in print he comes across as such a likeable and genuine guy that I even feel bad saying that.

 

[gordonrutter]

My opinion is that Malcolm's books could do with an editor to polish up the prose a bit, but honestly, even in print he comes across as such a likeable and genuine guy that I even feel bad saying that.

Well as you're based in Glasgow there is a chance to meet him and hear him speak if you want. 17th June SPI conference, publicity machine is just about to ramp up, will post a link when it does.

 

[Reverend D]

Well as you're based in Glasgow there is a chance to meet him and hear him speak if you want. 17th June SPI conference, publicity machine is just about to ramp up, will post a link when it does.

Thank you for the info Gordon! Hopefully there will be a great turn out.

 

[gordonrutter]

And almost no sooner said than done

https://scottishufoandparanormalconference.wordpress.com/

In the city of Glasgow, you can experience paranormal phenomena for yourself!
Scottish UFO & Paranormal Conference 2023
Saturday 17th June 2023
10am-7pm
Queen Margaret Union,
22 University Gardens,
Glasgow​

Tickets £10​

More details at the website

 

[Paul_Exeter]

The Falkland Hill book It is proving an interesting read and is a story that deserves to be heard, however nothing I have read has changed my mind. As likeable and dedicated Malcolm is, unfortunately he has a habit of asking UFO witnesses leading questions and this serves to undermine their testimony. For example, he asked one witness if they had seen any anomalous light orbs within their house prior to their encounter, stating this has happened to other UFO witnesses. Well, straight away that is putting pressure on the witness to please him, after all he has travelled to see them and is sitting in your front room eager to hear their story. The witness then comes up with a slightly dubious experience not within the timeframe of events but it seems to satisfy Malcolm.

Then there is the initial sighting of the silent black triangle that they witness whilst driving. It is described as a single bright white light low on the horizon, then getting closer and becoming two bright white lights with flashing red lights, in other words, an aeroplane coming into land somewhere with its landing lights on (the airport could be 20+ miles away). The adults' testimony then describes a triangular black ufo with two lights sweeping the ground below like searchlights and red lights on each corner. etc.... The boy, however, in a written report, relates seeing the bright lights and then hearing aircraft noise and leaves it at that. Credit to Malcolm for including this rational report from the boy, but you can tell he isn't pleased and suddenly the testimony of this boy is put into question, despite having accepted everything else he has come out with it, including some rather outlandish claims.

 

[Carse]

Then there is the initial sighting of the silent black triangle that they witness whilst driving. It is described as a single bright white light low on the horizon, then getting closer and becoming two bright white lights with flashing red lights, in other words, an aeroplane coming into land somewhere with its landing lights on (the airport could be 20+ miles away). The adults' testimony then describes a triangular black ufo with two lights sweeping the ground below like searchlights and red lights on each corner. etc.... The boy, however, in a written report, relates seeing the bright lights and then hearing aircraft noise and leaves it at that.

I live in the Carse of Gowrie between Dundee and Perth and when I first moved here I was amazed to find I was able to clearly see from my bedroom window the lights of aircraft approaching Edinburgh airport, a distance of just over 30 miles away as the crow flies. They appear just as described; a single white light which, as the aeroplane descends and turns, resolves into a couple of white lights with strobes then vanishes altogether as it continues to turn away and drops below the horizon. The same lights are most certainly be visible from the Howe of Fife where the encounter took place. I've just measured on Google maps and the distance from my house to the field in question at Newton of Falkland is 9.5 miles in a straight line more or less directly over Lindores Hill.

I'll need to buy a copy of the book now!