The Gorebridge Story
05 December 2015
Gorebridge is a small, ex-coal mining town about 15 miles south of Edinburgh, the Scottish capital city. Today it forms part of an increasingly urbanised network of similar satellite towns on the outskirts of the capital. My family originally comes from this area, and like so many others, its men had been miners. Drafted to fight in both world wars, they returned to a community that was about to be changed forever. For, in amongst the hustle and bustle of these human affairs there had also been a long-simmering, non-human agenda of secret meetings and whispered stories that was about to explode onto the human stage for all to see.
THE BALLAD OF THE GORE, April 1916, JBH
Published by the Committee of Borthwick Horticultural and Industrial Association in Aid of the Red Cross (local) and Newington House Training Home for Scottish Soldiers and Sailors Blinded in the War, the ballad goes like this:
‘… Proud Arniston; in ‘fairs o’ state
for ages Laird and son
Soldiers, Lawyers, Statesmen great
richt sterlin’ work has done,
Wae on the day shouldt frae’t be gane
The auld race o’ Dundas;
May that ne’er be, but lang there reign
its Leddy and its Lass ….’
The Gorebridge story with its ‘auld races’ probably started within the mists of ancient Scotland, weaving its mystical paths amongst the legends of the Biblical ‘Fall’ and the wars of Heaven. Stone-lined tunnel networks link archaic stone circles and underground kingdoms to the creatures of Atlantis and activities of mankind on the Earth’s surface. These interactions and faerie stories have been collected into a rich tapestry of local folklore by noted collectors, such as Mary Macleod Banks in her British Calendar Customs, Vols. 1-3, 1937.
It is little wonder, therefore, that the fantasy fairy tale writer, J.R.R. Tolkien, would take much of his inspiration from these marvellous tales of elves and goblins. To wit, many of the local place-names in and about the Gorebridge area are already known as part of Tolkien’s epic fantasy tale,The Hobbit and his trilogy, Lord of the Rings, e.g. ‘Goblin Halls’ and the ‘Dunedain’. Here, Tolkien’s superhuman ‘Rangers’ are named after the old name for Edinburgh, ‘Dunedain’, and his fictional faerie Kingdom ‘Lothlorien’ is similarly named after the kingdom of King Loth of the Lothians. The Lothians are the lands adjacent to the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, and have been observed as being very active as UFO window or entry areas both currently and in the last century, as well as places of faerie encounters during medieval times. Indeed, in central Scotland, the Bonnybridge-Falkirk UFO triangle was at one point called the ‘golden circle’ due to the number of lottery wins that were happening there!
History also has it that Scotland is the land of the ‘Orcs’, another of Tolkien’s monsters borrowed from Scottish lore. More recently, one of the local Lairds, a Sinclair, has laid claim to the mysterious Rosslyn Chapel bloodline, styling himself as the ‘Earl of Orcus’. It is very clear to anyone knowing this history that fantasy writer Tolkien found a rich seam of historic truths and half-truths to entwine into his modern classics.
Historically, the nature of the faerie story mutates to keep pace with mankind’s social appearances and technology, from flying chariots and coaches to dirigibles, ghost cars and silent jets. Essentially, however, the beings responsible for these displays of strangely behaving, but often human-looking technologies, have also had a taste for what appears to be a long-standing agenda of human abduction. Folklore, both ancient and modern, affirms this. Apologists will try to argue that alien interference is for our own, long-term human ‘good’, pointing out, for example, that these advanced beings are trying to produce the DNA formula of an advanced human hybrid with unlimited potential. I would reply, however, with the question, “What highly advanced, allegedly interstellar race needs several thousand years to concoct an efficient hybrid?”
Pointedly, the agenda for mankind as many Scottish folklore collectors from the past have noted, e.g. Kirk (1697) and Campbell (1902), and as authors such as Nigel Kerner, Song of the Greys(1998), have more recently noted is much more likely to be sinister in nature, traditionally having taken the form of oppression against the human soul.
Gorebridge, approximately 15 miles south of Edinburgh, continues to display all the hallmarks of an active alien presence and occupation zone. Many of the encounters that have been experienced there can only be described as surreal, which Dr. J.A. Hynek, the father of Ufology, characterised in his speech to the UN in November 1978 as ‘high strangeness’, an extreme ‘oddness’ symptomatic of alien encounters.
Gorebridge UFO
Above and over the area of an extensive cavern system that also takes in Rosslyn to the west, and Gifford and Goblin Halls to the east, have been regular UFO sightings, both historically and more recently. Reports from this area have spoken of, e.g.,:
observing massive low-level ships,
witnessing early-morning abductions,
seeing operational stargates near the cavern systems,
desperate spooks trying to get a handle on the alien manoeuvres,
over-flying ships and 40 spherical, black drones above Barleyknowe Road at rooftop height,
black choppers,
cattle mutilations on film,
multiple sightings,
lights at the old mine,
alien materialisation,
greys photographed in the woods,
holographic hardware that mimics military activity,
and of ships chasing cars down the local road, to name just a few.
One of several local witnesses at Gorebridge is John ‘Jackie’ Gillies, who, since 1999, has personally amassed a vast archive of local UFO footage. For example, at the old Blinkbonny Mine in Gorebridge, John encountered a tall, grey alien on one of his regular walks out, known in ufology as a ‘Grey’, who he later described as having “elephantine” grey, wrinkled skin, tattoos and glowing blue eyes, and whose telepathic powers were overwhelming.
Both the old mine and Roman camp (or fort) at Gorebridge are known together as ‘the camp’. Locals have frequently observed this to be a place of disturbing activities and close encounters, e.g. a couple of local men were driven from there by what appeared to be a huge, glowing, green eye while out collecting pine trees to sell at Christmas, taking place in absolute darkness except for their torch. Other locals also noticed strange lights in the sky that seemed to lift off from the same vicinity. Another incident is of a local man who had gone out walking on his own and had taken the trail through the mine area, noting at the time that he was visibly on his own. However, suddenly, out of nowhere, there appeared an eight-foot tall, bare-chested, shaven-headed, barbarian-like man or creature walking directly behind him, braving the Scottish weather as if comically on his way to play a film extra in some Mad Max movie.
The (Roman) camp is also known as Gowkshill. In Scotland a ‘gowk’ is a name given to someone who appears to be otherworldly and ‘away with the faeries’ in a stupid or awkward sort of way. Aptly named, there indeed appears to be a number of mysterious happenings in that neck of the Scottish woods, including the regular, but unexplained loss of livestock.
Another incident involves a friend and myself. As we drove up to the old Blinkbonny mine, aka ‘the camp’, we were approached from behind by a large, dark, 4x4 vehicle, which then swept past us and went up to the mine entrance, but then quickly turned and came back down towards us.
As it passed, I could clearly see two suited, middle-aged executive-type men in the car, noting in my rear-view mirror that after it went past us it then stopped and turned again! This time, however, it proceeded to go up the same road we would be turning on to go back home. We continued our way up to ‘the camp’, but disappointed in not seeing any of the alien ‘ships’ that people have allegedly seen parked there, we simply turned and headed back down. As we drove along the road towards home, the same 4x4 came towards us, but this time occupied by two casually dressed, not suited as before, worldly-looking, younger and fitter men. Where had the other two ‘men-in-black’ individuals gone? Somehow the occupants of the 4x4 we had seen just a couple minutes earlier had now totally shifted their appearance. Why? How? These questions remain unanswered.
Another odd occurrence in Gorebridge concerns a character called ‘Colonel Joe,’ an elderly military gentleman in a grey tweed suit who drove an old black classic Bentley. The Colonel had phoned John Gillies asking if he would meet up with him in nearby Vogrie Park to discuss some important information he had, but not before intercepting him en-route and putting a cloaking device on the bonnet of his car to “neutralise surveillance.” He proceeded to tell John about long-existing alien activity in the area, producing 1950s maps and stories that went all the way back to that bygone era. On checking out this story, I was able to spot Colonel Joe and his car on the camp road, taking a respectful glance at this modern-day observer and record keeper of Gorebridge’s alien trespassers, of which I, too, have a collection of alien images taken at this very same locality.
Another story takes place on a night in 2008 when John Gillies had been at his home in Birkenside, a village at the south end of Gorebridge. He looked out of his window and saw what he thought was a strobing blue light, immediately thinking police or a fire vehicle. However, on closer inspection, there was no service vehicle outside and the lights were gone—the blue lights now inside his house. However, this was not an isolated event. Since the start of 2008, the Gillies family were awakened almost every night between 3:30 and 4 a.m. by either a noise or an event, as had several of their neighbours, describing one such event like a window being hit with a snowball in the middle of summer.
John Gillies has had many remarkable experiences, not easily explained except as acts of ‘high strangeness’, that curious calling card of alien presence. On one such occasion he describes being able to hear rising notes of variable pitch for no reason whatsoever, these sounds simply manifesting. However, on eventually recognising the use of tone machinery, possibly being used to communicate, he went to his window and standing outside in the garden saw the same grey alien with the heart-shaped head that he had once filmed in a low-flying holographic chopper 150 feet from his door. Was this alien trying to communicate, even possibly attempting to have him join the local exodus of greys that took place at the small stargate in December 2007 near the caverns at the Limekilns in Middleton? An answer would not be forthcoming as that invitation was left unheeded.
John was also able to watch this operational stargate at Middleton in use one night during one of his many night watches and spoke of seeing a glowing bluish white portal about ten feet across that opened up but cast no light on the local vegetation after it had opened. He then witnessed massive ships offloading supplies overhead and while this was happening claims to have been able to see through space to the plains and cities of Mars.
In contrast to this rather mild ‘star brother’ story above, however, is the story of how one night the Gillies family were awakened by a crash of glass downstairs. On going down to their living room, they witnessed thousands of glass fragments from the coffee table writhing on the floor like a snake. Equally terrifying is the story of the family pet dog, a thickset Rottweiler, being lifted up by its throat high in the air by an invisible arm. Or of seeing a strange, slow moving, small-winged aircraft streaking out blue fork-lightning from both of its sides while flying low over the town, an eerie and somewhat Gothic sight.
Grey at Gowks Hill
The ongoing events chronicled at Gorebridge are on the increase, without even including those untold numbers not recorded, nor do they centre on one family alone. Those that have been recorded include photographs of the machinery that aliens use to harvest cattle which they then render, a photo of the top half of a cow flying through the air, photos of greys in a chopper 150 feet off the ground in a built-up area, too low for normal craft, as well as UFO car chases down the A7 road. These events are almost inevitably sinister with respect to the Earth’s life forms.
Regular reports also include take-offs being sighted from the adjacent Pentland Hills and overflies at Mayfield near Edinburgh, which point directly to what is also now happening in and about the Gorebridge area. There have been recent local reports of a big mutilated deer hanging high up in a tree, with further alien activity once again noted in and around the local woods. This increasing activity culminated last year in my being able to obtain pictures of ‘Greys’ in the local woods at Crichton Castle, along with close shots of some unknown technological artifact.
It is not unfeasible, therefore, nor does it take a great leap of faith to seriously consider that Gorebridge is likely replete with alien technology, operating not only at ‘the camp’ level and in the woods, but also at street level. Ex-special forces night footage shows white lights flashing here and there in the town at night. I have also taken pictures of some strange looking technology on peoples’ roofs with an alien figure running across one of these. Indeed, not very far away from where these pictures were taken a lady (Mrs. X) claims visitation by beings that are scanning her DNA and who have relayed to her they belong to a humanoid species who are alien but look human, and who need to do biomedical research. Their leader is called ‘Alda’, who has an alleged army at his disposal called ‘Mendaps’, as well as technicians and counsellors, one of whom claims to have been able to help restructure Mrs. X’s mind for more advanced things.
John Gillies, himself, feels that he is mysteriously drawn towards a local operational portal, which he has witnessed operating on numerous occasions. The field in which this portal is situated is within the area of the underground limestone cavern system at which there have also been numerous sightings over the years of strange beings by the gamekeepers and shepherds who reside there.
On the evening of Tuesday, August 21, 2007 John drove down his usual route to the portal area at the local Crichton Castle ruin, adjacent to a massive cavern system, and reputedly haunted with ghosts, strange watchdogs, werewolves and various monsters to keep folks away on nights such as these. So far, nothing unusual had happened. However, as John drove back to Gorebridge along the narrow country road, he passed a farm that had previously moved one of its dairy herds near to where alien activity had been taking place, away from the CCTV cameras placed on all its stock pens. He decided to stop his car, when suddenly he heard and then saw three low-flying military jets roaring over the neighbourhood, alerting individuals who were outdoors to a military exercise that was happening or about to happen. But what occurred next was quite astounding, even to John Gillies, a long-time UFO observer. He began filming two UFOs. One was a large cylindrical, vertically upright device with a tube coming out of it and a glass-domed control room on top, with some clear pictures later turning out. Flying above it was a smaller escort craft. Next, however, came the horrid sight of the top half of a bull, being thrust up into the air, snatched and mutilated in plain sight, away from the peace of its grazing.
During this past summer, (2015) John Gillies and I investigated further reports from villagers in the Gorebridge area about fields “lighting up at night” between Gorebridge and the village of Carrington. Gillies was not surprised by this as he had recent footage of these same fields lighting up and then soon after, of huge ghostly oblong, container-like vehicles rising up through these fields before heading off. He also had daytime footage of a strange tornado-like cloud on the ground at that exact same place (Scotland is not traditionally a place of tornadoes). Are these events related? Possibly. What is certain is that this locality is as normal as an alien freight terminal.
Special Ops harassment of the Gillies is less overt these days, with one particularly intimidating contact with an executive-type figure who demanded to know about the alien experiment with Comet ‘17P/Holmes’ now thankfully stopped. John Gillies relates, however, of unusual coercion tactics still being used, for example, of being sent images of a dark interrogation room as an incentive to co-operate with a military operation that claimed to be part of the Nation State of the United Kingdom, with the contact person using the name ‘Windsor’. This person appeared to be barking like a robot, with Gillies being warned that things would not go well for him if he told anyone. However, this intimidation did not work, as John Gillies did not co-operate, nor did he keep quiet about this incident.
I was lucky to have a local personality who had operated ghost tours get involved with the unusual events happening at Gorebridge, but on the day I drove him around, he returned home to find thousands of dollars’ worth of stolen camera gear left on his doorstep, clearly off-putting. The local Member of Parliament at that time, David Hamilton, who was then contacted, declined to make any official issue of these matters, simply stating that all such reports coming out of Gorebridge were merely based on solitary ‘one-off’ events. Interestingly, although we have been lucky to have support from the local press concerning the strange events that have occurred here, neither the witness stories nor abundant footage coming out of Gorebridge have ever made it to any of the so-called UFO Conferences. What is certain is that for some reason, the events at Gorebridge are for the large part being ignored and for some reason, simply covered up.
Thus, despite the influx of new residents and housing at Gorebridge, a reinstated commuter railway and all the applications and media technology associated with the 21st Century, the run-of-the-mill alien agenda still operates business as usual here. The local non-humans, be they faeries, greys, demons in silver suits, or seemingly friendly star brothers, just keep on doing what they have always done. Whether or not these beings can maintain their grip on the psyche of the local humans, however, through their ongoing, sometimes terrifying, displays, remains to be seen.
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Andrew Hennessey
Andrew Hennessey from Edinburgh, Scotland has a lengthy background in paranormal research and investigation, ranging from his personal journey into Theosophy, Spiritualism and the Knights Templar to the formation of his Transformation Studies Group. He is also a noted sceptic of Exopolitics, a pro-alien organisation, having asked Amnesty International on more than one occasion to consider the human rights of alien abuse victims. As the founder of the Xenopolitics forum, his blog and further articles can be found at this site (http://www.xenopolitics.com).
He is a prolific blogger writing extensively about close encounters for more than two decades. In his highly regarded and recently published book ‘Alien Encounters and the Paranormal – the Scottish Experience’ Andrew Hennessey takes the reader on his own personal journey ( http://www.stargateedinburgh.net ). He also operates Stargate Edinburgh Tours, which takes visitors to the alien hotspot of the world near Gorebridge, just out side of Edinburgh ( http://www.stargateedinburgh.com ), where they, too, may experience their own ‘close encounter’.