• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Odd Lights On The Golf Course

Stillill

Stillill

Abominable Snowman
Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Messages
893
Location
London
Been meaning to post this for a while,just had to confirm some details with my parents. As you can probably guess it happened to them and not me.
During the mid to late 90s my Dad was on a work shift that meant he didn't get home until about 10.30pm.When he got home they took the three dogs to Haste Hill golf course.
They'd seen the odd light flitting about in the woods which join onto the golf course. Obviously could've been somebody with a torch so not very fortean .
But there are 3 occasions when very odd things happened.
The first was when they were walking along one of the fairways and on another fairway running parallel (about 200ft) away was a bright light that appeared to be on the grass. The light seemed to be about tennis ball size. The light beam it gave off was very defined and not straight but curved almost bowl shaped. My Dad wanted to go and see what it was but my Mum was scared and he didn't want to leave her alone. They carried on walking but kept on looking back and it was there until they left.
The second incident was when they were walking along a footpath that seperates Haste Hill from the private golf course.They saw a light ahead of them about waist height and assumed it was somebody pushing a bicycle coming towards them. As they approached there was a humming sound coming from the ball,again tennis ball sized. They said it had a fuzzy, electric appearance. They got to about 15-20ft away and it was just hovering above the footpath . My Dad carried on walking towards it and it simply moved away keeping a level course but not really fast maybe 10-20mph. It carried on going until they couldn't see it anymore. There was no reaction from the dogs during this incident.
The last incident happened when they were crouching over putting the dogs leads back on about to head home. Suddenly a ball of light landed inbetween them on the grass, slightly smaller than the light on the path. Again it made the humming sound and had the fuzzy,electric appearance. This one simply 'went out' so to speak. Again the dogs didn't show any reaction to it.
Ball lightning or earth lights maybe. Your guess is as good as mine. There are a few more less interesting incidents. I'll post later if anyone's interested. If you need any more info I'll ask them.
 
Very odd that the dogs didn't react.
 
We had some thunderstorms and hailstones a few weeks ago and one of the things that struck(!) me was the various stories I heard afterwards about how peoples pets reacted to the storms. It seemed to me that the owners who where themselves scared of thunder and lightning passed this fear onto their dogs.

Seems your Dad at least wasn't too concerned by what he was seeing, so that might explain the dogs non-reaction.

But from what you've said, this looks like a ball lightning hot spot, and that needs further investigation.
 
Stillill said:
Been meaning to post this for a while,just had to confirm some details with my parents...
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing that cos its reminded me of something.

Me and a buddy saw something similar to what you describe (late 1990s) one evening whilst heading back home. We had taken a short cut which led us behind school grounds towards fields and McKenzies Farm. As we approached the farm we had to be quiet for obvious reasons but managed to pass through undetected. We made it back onto a footpath and carried on with some quick look backs to make sure the farmer hadn't clocked us. Soon after this my mate spotted a red light in the nights sky that was close to the farm. It too had a slight tail that flickered like glitter as it slowly made its way down. It made swing like movements that changed its direction several times before it headed for the farm itself. It couldnt have been very big because before we lost sight of it the light appeared to be in front of the farm buildings. Its glow covered the ground underneath it and also highlighted nearby stone walls. We cant be sure if it hit the ground because we did notice its glow further along the grounds of the farm - it seemed to still be on the move..

It was dark, we were alone out there so we hurried our way home. There was hardly any breeze in the air and we never heard any noise coming from it.
 
Poachers or groundskeepers lamping for rabbits?

Waaaaay back when i was a green-keeper we'd do that occasionally if the rabbits were getting to be a problem on the golf course.
 
Stillill said:
Been meaning to post this for a while,just had to confirm some details with my parents. As you can probably guess it happened to them and not me.
During the mid to late 90s my Dad was on a work shift that meant he didn't get home until about 10.30pm.When he got home they took the three dogs to Haste Hill golf course.
They'd seen the odd light flitting about in the woods which join onto the golf course. Obviously could've been somebody with a torch so not very fortean .
But there are 3 occasions when very odd things happened.
The first was when they were walking along one of the fairways and on another fairway running parallel (about 200ft) away was a bright light that appeared to be on the grass. The light seemed to be about tennis ball size. The light beam it gave off was very defined and not straight but curved almost bowl shaped. My Dad wanted to go and see what it was but my Mum was scared and he didn't want to leave her alone. They carried on walking but kept on looking back and it was there until they left.
The second incident was when they were walking along a footpath that seperates Haste Hill from the private golf course.They saw a light ahead of them about waist height and assumed it was somebody pushing a bicycle coming towards them. As they approached there was a humming sound coming from the ball,again tennis ball sized. They said it had a fuzzy, electric appearance. They got to about 15-20ft away and it was just hovering above the footpath . My Dad carried on walking towards it and it simply moved away keeping a level course but not really fast maybe 10-20mph. It carried on going until they couldn't see it anymore. There was no reaction from the dogs during this incident.
The last incident happened when they were crouching over putting the dogs leads back on about to head home. Suddenly a ball of light landed inbetween them on the grass, slightly smaller than the light on the path. Again it made the humming sound and had the fuzzy,electric appearance. This one simply 'went out' so to speak. Again the dogs didn't show any reaction to it.
Ball lightning or earth lights maybe. Your guess is as good as mine. There are a few more less interesting incidents. I'll post later if anyone's interested. If you need any more info I'll ask them.
Click to expand...
Interesting that the humming or buzzing noise ( sometimes described as sounding like bees in a large glass jar) is often reported at UFO and Marian apparitions.
 
GeorgeP said:
That makes sense searinglight, thanks.
Click to expand...

Well, i was actually replying to the OP, i guess your experience *could* be due to the same thing, but i got the impression it was more "aerial" than that, unless there was a hill or something.
 
searinglight said:
Well, i was actually replying to the OP, i guess your experience *could* be due to the same thing, but i got the impression it was more "aerial" than that, unless there was a hill or something.
Click to expand...

I was referring to the OP :D Just thinking out loud in a forum sense :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
davidplankton said:
We had some thunderstorms and hailstones a few weeks ago and one of the things that struck(!) me was the various stories I heard afterwards about how peoples pets reacted to the storms. It seemed to me that the owners who where themselves scared of thunder and lightning passed this fear onto their dogs.

Seems your Dad at least wasn't too concerned by what he was seeing, so that might explain the dogs non-reaction.

But from what you've said, this looks like a ball lightning hot spot, and that needs further investigation.
Click to expand...
I've often thought of going there in the evening but the chances of actually seeing anything are very slim. They were taking the dogs there at night for about 6 years and only had those 3 incidents plus a few minor ones.
Another point that might be interesting is that all of the incidents happened during the summer months.
 
searinglight said:
Poachers or groundskeepers lamping for rabbits?

Waaaaay back when i was a green-keeper we'd do that occasionally if the rabbits were getting to be a problem on the golf course.
Click to expand...
Yes there's a chance that might explain lights seen flitting about in the woods but certainly not the other incidents.
 
When I was at college in the early 80s, one of the lecturers described something similar. She was walking down a woodland path at dusk and they noticed a light weaving in and out around the trees. She said it was about the size of a tennis ball, quite hazy but denser in the centre and a bluish white colour. It floated about a foot above the ground. I can't remember where or when she had this sighting.
 
Old_Shoe said:
Maybe lightning bugs like to make tight little swarms?
Click to expand...
Yes that is a possibility that I haven't ruled out. I always thought that they gave off a green light and not a white light
 
Been a long time since I've seen lightning bugs and I'm not sure anymore if they're greenish or bluish. I guess what I'm trying to say is not necessarily lightning bugs in the literal sense, but rather any type of small swarming insect LIKE that possessing bioluminescence ability.

(I'm on a cantankerous laptop computer and it does stupid things at random...like it just switched font to Italics for me all on its own.)
 
Was this in the UK?
No fireflies in the UK. Only glow worms, which are flightless beetles.
 
I'll had the other 3 incidents into the mix. They saw a ball of light come out of the woods above the tree level and float away just above the canopy . They were quite a distance away, about half a long fairways distance so maybe 150-200 yards do this could easily have been something mundane like a faraway plane that looked nearer.
The other two incidents happened in the evening again. Maybe these are quite significant in the ball lightning/earth light theory. They were walking along and my Dad started feeling light headed all of a sudden. He didn't say anything to my Mum and carried on walking. When he felt better a few minutes later he told her and she had experienced exactly the same thing at the same time. This happened twice but the second time my Mum told my Dad that she was feeling light headed when it was happening and he did as well. They carried on walking and it wore off and went away.
They didn't walk back to the same spot to see if it happened again unfortunately .
A little bit about my Dad and to quote "I don't believe in all that shit ". Referring to anything unusual happening. He says the incidents have a natural explanation. Must admit I do agree with him on this one.
 
Bigphoot2 said:
Does the area where you saw the lights have a "reputation" for ghosts, mysterious events etc? When I read it I thought about Earthlights - more here http://inamidst.com/lights/earth
Click to expand...
There are some woods called Mad Bess Woods about half a mile away that allegedly has a headless horseman ghost. I'll go on google and check the area for anything else.
 
Just had a brief look and there's some stuff on bravenet.com about the woods.
 
Bigphoot2 said:
When I was at college in the early 80s, one of the lecturers described something similar. She was walking down a woodland path at dusk and they noticed a light weaving in and out around the trees. She said it was about the size of a tennis ball, quite hazy but denser in the centre and a bluish white colour. It floated about a foot above the ground. I can't remember where or when she had this sighting.
Click to expand...
a friend of mine and her boyfriend were hiking at dusk at a local popular park, but it was dusk and they were on a little used trail. way back up the hill in the woods, a significant distance from the roads, and homes, and no people around... she told me she saw a light appear and glide thru the woods. just a smooth moving steady light that seemed to give off a glow.
 
The buzzing sound , or a feeling of buzzing (yes, I know, sounds odd, but if you've experienced it you'd know what I mean) sometimes accompanies situations where one feels spooked (as in real Panic, another topic)

I wonder how many incidents which are written off as 'paranormal' are actually due to some sort of yet-unknown-to-science electric discharge or build-up of static electricity. I'm thinking Van Der Graaf Generator-like effects.

Or it could be some departed soul feeling lonely.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top