In Welsh folklore there are examples of "tan-we", strange lights which would appear from the heavens and land near houses where people were doomed to die. So when some Welsh poachers saw what today we would call a UFO in Buckley, Flintshire in the 19th century, they were afraid it would bring ill fortune down upon them.

They were also afraid to talk about the sighting for fear of being imprisoned for trespassing. But sons and nephews of the witnesses told the story to Buckley historian, the late James Bentley, who preserved this fascinating account for us.

Mr Bentley learnt that a serious dispute over pay at a Buckley colliery in the 1880s had led to the coal miners going on strike. They were forced to poach to feed their families.

Unfortunately, all the land thereabouts belonged to the mine owners, making the enterprise a very risky affair.

One dark, moonless night, five companions crept down to the fields south of the town and set their traps and released a ferret.

"Everywhere was pitch black and deathly silent," recounted Mr Bentley. "Suddenly a feeling of electrical tension seemed to descend upon their crouching figures. They had the feeling of being observed.

"Glancing up, they all saw a large, purplish-red luminous ball hovering above them. Silently it descended into a field adjacent. Petrified, they cowered down into the hedgerow and covered their heads with nets.

"Then they sensed a lessening of tension and heard a slight swishing sound. One of them cautiously opened his eyes and peered over the bank. A swirling ball of smoke, with small tongues of flame issuing from the base, was lifting off the ground." The men ran home in alarm and vowed each other to secrecy. The following evening one brave soul returned to collect the gear they had left behind in their panic.

"Peering into the nearby field, where the object had appeared," recorded Mr Bentley.. "He saw a large brown ring - it was scorched grass.."

This Victorian close encounter is a rare example of a UFO sighting from the pre-flying saucer days and as such is extremely valuable. A circle of scorched earth is often noted after UFO appearances.

The UFO phenomenon only got into its stride in the 1950s, when the storytellers were already elderly. So the tale is unlikely to have been corrupted too much by extra detail - making it all the more believable.

Today many people put UFO sightings down to the military testing new designs and equipment, but there have been sightings in North Wales as early as the 17th century. During that period balls of flame were seen crossing the sea near the west coast of Wales. In Harlech in 1662 it was claimed that these strange lights were setting fire to crops and barns and infecting grass, although they seemed to do no harm to people who were in the fields at the time.

In 1743 William John Lewis, a farmer from Peibio, near Holyhead, saw an object sailing through the air above the nearby mountains long before man had mastered flight. He claimed he had seen similar craft at roughly 10-year intervals.

The Egryn lights are a famous phenomenon that have baffled people in Meiryonnydd for centuries and in 1877 blue lights were seen over Pwllheli and the Dysynni Estuary.

Once strongly believed in Wales were Corpse Candles (Cannwyllau Corff), supernatural lights said to appear in the homes of the dying or be seen floating down country lanes at night, making their way to the parish burial ground along the same route subsequently taken by a funeral.

One year the area around Barmouth became famous for mysterious lights in the sky - what today we might call UFOs, but which the inhabitants back then considered death omens. The Barmouth lights achieved a lot more attention than the usual stories because they coincided with a major religious revival.

In 1905 national newspaper reporters descended on the seaside town - cynically, no doubt, expecting to write about a bunch of superstitious peasants in the back of beyond. But many returned to London impressed with the UFO-like phenomena described by reliable witnesses.

The lights were soon adopted by Mary Jones and the Revivalists as proof that God was trying to communicate with them. Ms Jones was widely discredited as being crazy, but with the increase in UFO sightings over the 20th century the lights later became a focus for UFO investigators.

Of these, there are two well-attested accounts of sightings of mysterious lights which, in both cases, appeared to predict a death.

In the first a party of people walking on the south side of the Mawddach estuary saw a strange light at the ferry house of Penrhyn. One description has it that the light appeared to be inside the cottage and shining through the windows; the other that it shone outside the house and was similar in appearance to the glow of a bonfire. At any rate, the light had vanished by the time they reached the ferry house.

When they returned to Barmouth, they learnt people there had seen the light, too. A few nights afterwards, the man who lived at the cottage fell into the estuary at high tide while stepping off a boat, and drowned.

The second incident took place that same winter. Lights were seen dancing in the air by people on both banks of the estuary. At Borthwyn or Borthwnog - depending on which account you read - many people gathered to watch the lights.

After a while all but one of them disappeared. This one descended to a little bay where some boats were moored, and some men in a sloop which was anchored there also saw it. The light hovered over one particular boat and then vanished. Days later the man to whom that boat belonged drowned in Barmouth harbour.

In 1896 Welsh Folklore, by the Rev Elias Owen, recounted the story of Dafydd Fawr, a farmer from Penrhyndeudraeth who thought he saw a fairy dance but may actually have had a close encounter of the third kind. Dafydd was on his way home from market when he saw a small comet fall to the ground, followed by a hoop of fire. Two small figures appeared from the flaming hoop, drew a circle on the ground and started to dance around it.

Dafydd watched amazed as more little people, both men and women, seemed to appear from nowhere and join in the dance. The fairies, as Dafydd supposed they were, danced for a few minutes until the first two figures climbed back into the hoop of fire and flew away. The rest of the fairies vanished.

Dafydd continued home, a journey which would normally take him about 20 minutes. When he got home he found he had lost three hours. According to writer Richard Holland the "fairy dance" episode had all the cult hallmarks of an alien landing - a strange object comes out of the sky, unusual humanoid figures emerge and leave a circle imprinted in the ground, and the incredulous earthling watches spellbound before realising he has lost hours in what seemed like minutes.

Close encounters continue to this day throughout Wales. Gaynor Sutherland, from Oakenholt, claimed she was taken on a journey by aliens she had met when she was nine. In 1976 Gaynor was playing in fields near her home when a flying saucer landed nearby. Two figures, which she supposed were male and female, emerged from the ship and began to carry out what appeared to be scientific tests on the ground.

In an area of West Wales and the island of Aglesea, in what's been dubbed the Broadhaven Triangle, A game of football between children at Broadhaven School was interupted when a glowing cigar-shaped object landed in a nearby field, on February 4, 1977. David George, nine at the time, said he saw a "silver man with spiked ears" near the craft.

On February 17 the ship was seen by one of the school's teachers and then later in the day by two women. They claimed to have seen a figure climb into the craft before it made its departure.

In September the following year, a group of boys were playing football in Llannerchymedd, Anglesey, when they saw what they thought was a helicoptor land nearby. The boys went to investigate, finding a small white object with a red glow stuck in the ground where the helicopter had been. They also claimed to have seen two hooded humanoids near the craft.

One family claimed to have been abducted by extraterrestrial while travelling through North Wales on November 10, 1977. On the same night an elderly man from Llandudno had been frightened by unusual beams of light in the sky above the Great Orme. The family were driving near the village of Llandernog, Denbighshire. They saw a purple triangular craft which then swallowed up their car. The purple object seemed to vanish. The family had lost several hours but could remember nothing about what had taken place during that time.

Meanwhile, another man driving along the Llandernog road that night claimed he saw a spacecraft as big as a soccer field with hundreds of bright lights emanating from it. The man whose family were abducted was reportedly instructed by the RAF not to speak publicly about what had happened to him.

-compiled by farshores

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