August 2015 – Carreg Mabws, Mathry – Glowing Orange Sphere Sighting
Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Date: 14/03/2023
In January 2023 I spoke with a lady named Nina Scott via Facebook Messenger about a couple of sightings from earlier in her life which she wanted to get down on record. This report covers the more recent of these sightings. There is a link to her childhood sighting at the base of it.
Sighting Details
In August 2015 Nina went on holiday with her ex-husband and their two daughters to St Brides Bay in Pembrokeshire. They stayed at a holiday cottage in a hamlet known as Carreg Mabws, South of the village of Mathry.
The area is very rural, and the cottage is surrounded in farmer’s fields. At the back of the property is a small garden with shrubbery at the far end, beyond which is an open field which slopes gradually upward.
It was the penultimate night of their holiday (a Thursday). Nina happened to wake up about 1 am. She decided to get up out of bed and go to use the bathroom. She stepped out of the bedroom onto the landing. Above the stairwell is a tall window which gives a view of the surrounding area to the West. As she walked along the landing she happened to glance out of this window.
Near the far end of the neighbouring field, about 800 feet away from her location, she saw what appeared to be a huge glowing circle/sphere of amber-coloured light. Within this she could see three smaller orbs of even brighter light. It seemed to be hovering a good height above the ridge of the hill, and seemed to be about the size of a double decker bus.
Immediately she thought to herself “Shit! What the hell is that?” For a brief moment she thought it might be the full moon low down in the sky, but realised it was too large and close to be this.
She stared at the object, puzzled by its appearance. It was completely static and she could not hear any sound coming from it. She did not call out to wake her ex-husband up as she thought he may want to leave the cottage and get closer to whatever it was, and she instinctively felt this would not be a good idea.
After two minutes she had to go to use the bathroom. When she returned a minute later the glowing sphere was no longer visible. Nina felt extremely un-nerved by what she had just witnessed. She got back into bed and pulled the covers up and over her head, and settled back down to sleep.
In the morning Nina informed her ex-husband about what she had seen and why she had not woken him up. He informed her that at some point during the night he too had awoken to find the room he was in flooded in bright light! In a semi-awakened state he thought to himself that it could not have been moonlight as it was a cloudy night, and it could not have been a nearby helicopter as there was no sound.
After hearing the story Nina was secretly pleased that it was the last day of their holiday as she felt nervous about staying any further nights in the cottage. Once she was back home she E-Mailed BUFORA to inform them about the sighting.
A couple of weeks later BUFORA responded via E-Mail and stated that there had been a couple of other sightings of a very similar object in the vicinity prior to the night of her sighting. Unfortunately Nina was unable to locate the response E-Mail for inclusion in this report.
Sighting Analysis
This is an intriguing sighting with some odd aspects to it. One possible explanation which can be ruled out is that the object was the full moon low in the sky. When near the horizon the moon can of course sometimes appear orane in colour. However Nina has informed me that she checked an online Lunar Calendar and confirmed that it had not been a full moon that night. Below is a link to the calendar:
Nina is certain that they stayed at the cottage either the first or second week of August, and that the incident took place on a Thursday. As you can see this would have meant that the moon was either a half-moon or thin crescent, so could not have been responsible for what was seen.
I asked Nina if it could have been a very bright light attached to a vehicle or some farm machinery near the top of the field. There is a road that runs along the ridge, but the object seemed to have sharply defined edges, and was too large in size to be caused by headlights. If it was a bright light (or multiple lights merging into one) attached to farm machinery of some kind then it seems odd that it would be left on to that time of morning, and I am unaware of any machinery which would have such a light/lights.
If it was an actual glowing spherical shaped object with other lights either on or within it, what could it have been? 360 Radar confirms that the area does fall within an airway, meaning that commercial jets do fly over the vicinity:
However it was stationary for a couple of minutes. Even if it had been travelling towards her location, which might have initially given the appearance of being motionless, it is likely some movement would have been seen in that time period.
It did not have the appearance of a helicopter hovering at low altitude. No normal navigation lights were observed, and at the distance it was the sound of rotor blades would likely have been heard. And it seemed too large and the wrong shape to be a drone or other radio controlled model.
A large lit inflatable or a landed hot air balloon lit by the flame at the base seem unlikely, why would someone be flying such an object at that time of morning? Besides which a hot air balloon on the ground or taking off would not have this appearance. The glow from the flame would only be intermittent not constant, and would very much be at the base, with the silhouette of the balloon seen above.
Some aspects of the sighting would fit with it being an earth light. These are quite rare, but are usually seen over rural areas. They are circular in shape and last for a short period of time before fading away. However the object sounds too large in size to have been this, and also had the other smaller distinct orbs within it, rather than being uniform in colour.
The light which was seen by Nina’s ex-husband could not have come from the object, as the bedroom he was sleeping in was on the other side of the cottage so the window was not facing the same direction as the one on the landing. So this appears to be unrelated. Although some contact experiences can start with a glowing white light flooding the room, there are no other indications that such an experience took place, although due to the missing time phenomenon this cannot be fully ruled out.
It cannot be confirmed beyond doubt that the glowing sphere seen by Nina was an actual solid object and not just an extremely vivid light which appeared to be spherical in shape. It did not perform any manoeuvres and was relatively close to the ground, so it is hard to say for sure whether it was something airborne or not, although to Nina it certainly appeared to be. Due to the number of unresolved questions it remains a perplexing mystery, at least for now.
As mentioned, Nina had another very different sighting back in her childhood. Click here to go to the separate case report.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2023