Scotland’s UFO Trail

Dechmont Wood, in West Lothian, is home to the country’s only UFO trail, a route inspired by an alleged encounter with extra-terrestrials that resulted in a unique police investigation.

The way-marked pathway, which begins in the Deans area of Livingston, ascends over the grassy western shoulder of Dechmont Law before continuing through woodland on neighbouring Deer Hill. It is a short hike, just a couple of kilometres in length, exploring a quiet corner of the countryside wedged between the new town and the busy M8 motorway.

The route starts at Dechmont Law Park car park, at the northern end of Eastwood Park, behind Deans Community High School, and proceeds north over grassland, passing below Dechmont Law. The summit, marked by a trig point, can easily be incorporated into the walk and it is a worthwhile detour for the extensive views from the top.

Back on the trail, the path leads into woodland where it soon splits. Either option can be followed as they converge a little further on at an information board and a plaque recording the mysterious events of the morning of November 9, 1979, which are often referred to as the ‘Livingston Incident’ or ‘Robert Taylor Incident’.

At around 10.30am, Robert Taylor, a forestry worker with the Livingston Development Corporation, was in the woods, checking and mending fences, accompanied by his red setter. He claimed that he spotted a ‘flying dome’ or a large, circular sphere measuring six and a half metres in diameter hovering above the forest floor in a clearing about 500 metres from where he parked his truck just off the M8. Taylor described the object as constructed from ‘a dark metallic material with a rough texture, like sandpaper’, featuring an outer rim ‘set with small propellers’. He also reported that he smelled a foul odour which he likened to that of burning vehicle brakes.

Taylor further claimed that two small spheres emerged from the underside of the craft and, with rod-like arms, they grabbed him. They were dragging him in the direction of the larger object when he lost consciousness. When he awoke, 20 minutes later, the craft and spheres were gone. Dazed, Taylor returned to his van but, in his haste and confusion, reversed it into a ditch and he ended up walking home.

When he got home, his wife noticed that he was dishevelled and muddy and his clothing was torn. She alerted his boss and the police were called. Officers accompanied Taylor back into the woods where they found various marks on the ground that, together with his ripped clothing, appeared to support his story. The incident is unique among reported UFO sightings in that it was actually investigated by the police, based on the grounds Taylor had allegedly been assaulted.

The police report from the time stated that the marks on the ground indicated an ‘object of several tons had stood there but there was nothing to show that it had been driven or towed away’. Taylor’s clothing was forensically examined and he was interviewed three times. His story always remained the same. He was a respected war hero and teetotal churchgoer with no history of mental illness; no one doubted that he was sincere in what he believed he had seen. He died in 2007 at the age of 88 but, for as long as he lived, he never deviated from his story.

Taylor’s ‘brush with aliens’ was reported by the Livingston Post newspaper and the BBC and his story quickly made headlines across the world, attracting the attention of both ufologists and skeptics, many of whom visited the woodland. It later featured in a National Geographic channel documentary, UFOs: The Untold Story. Officers were, however, baffled and the police inquiry was ultimately inconclusive. No one – human or alien – was ever arrested for the assault.

The Dechmont trail is not Britain’s only UFO trail. There is another one in Rendlesham Forest, near Woodbridge in Suffolk, linked to a sighting in December 1980.

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