Long-Leggedy Beasties on Windwhistle Hill

For at least 500 years, it has been a well-established English tradition to tell fireside ghost stories during the Christmas season, especially on Christmas Eve (Weir and Clarke, 2018). 

Early evidence of this fact dates from 1553, when Thomas Kirchmaier wrote:

"For these three nights are always thought unfortunate to be;
Wherein they are afraid of sprites and cankered witches' spite;
And dreadful devils, black and grim, that then have the chiefest might" (Weir and Clarke, 2018).

This Christmas, my family and I have been staying close to my grandparents in Somerset, specifically near Crewkerne and Ilminster. This area of the country is famous for its apple orchards - haunted by a fairy being called the Apple Tree Man (Briggs, 1979), whose good-will is required for the continued fortunes of the farmers. Somerset also plays host to the legendary Glastonbury, reportedly the site of both an entrance to the fairy kingdom (Briggs, 1979), and the final resting place of King Arthur (Green, 2009). Unsurprisingly, the whole county is a hotbed of weirdness. 

In the spirit of the traditional Christmas ghost story, I went searching for any unusual happenings around Crewkerne or Ilminster to regale my readers with. I was not disappointed.

A Light in the Mist

Approximately halfway between the towns of Chard and Crewkerne lies Windwhistle Hill. It is apparently so named because, as one travels down the A30, the wind makes an eerie whistling sound as it passes through the beech trees that line each side of the road. These trees previously made excellent hiding spots for highwaymen, who would rob and murder unfortunate travellers between London and the West Country (Malloy, 2022). 

The hill is also haunted by the ghost of a local witch, who was struck and killed by a stage coach long ago. A 17th century pub sits atop the ridge, whose former cellar was supposedly used both as a body disposal ground for homicidal highwaymen, and as a magical trap for the Devil himself (Holt, 1986).

All this provides a gloomy context for what transpired one dark September night in 1977. It was 21:30 at night, when Mrs. Kate Walker, her husband, and her two sons, were travelling home along the A30 through Windwhistle Hill. From a vantage point approaching the top of the hill, the Walker family were all able to see a large orange light ahead of them. It was off the road to their left, at the further end of the hill (Rosales, 2016). 

It was initially partially cloaked by fog, and at first none of them thought anything of it. There was a power station and electricity pylons nearby, seemingly offering a plausible explanation for the otherwise strange sight (Malloy, 2022).

However, as they drove closer to the object, the true strangeness of what they were witnessing began to sink in. It was cigar-shaped and enormous, probably between 200-300ft long. It was hovering, completely static in the sky, approximately 800-1000ft above the left-hand side of the road. 

"It was cigar-shaped and enormous" [x]

To the right of them at this point was the aforementioned Windwhistle Inn. Kate remembers peering at the pub and seeing it in total darkness, save for a single light in a little upstairs window, perhaps unusual for that time of the night. When the family glanced back up at the floating light, it had moved to be almost directly above them (Malloy, 2022).

Suddenly, time seemed to warp around them. The next thing any of them consciously remember was a cyclist's headlamp visible through the fog, coming down the road the other way, seemingly from nowhere. It passed them and moved along the road to Crewkerne (Mitrovic, 2021). The family completed their journey with a thick atmosphere of unease hanging over them inside the car. When they arrived home, Kate realised that roughly 30 minutes were completely unaccounted for in their memories.

Years later, memories of that fateful night began to return to the family. As they had been watching the light above them, their car engine had abruptly died and the headlights shut off, leaving only the spectral glow lighting the cold darkness around them. It felt as if the world was somehow in slow motion, and Mr. Walker's desperate attempts to restart the engine failed (Rosales, 2016). 

The Walkers' younger son claimed to have seen a dark shape outside the car window, which he described as being extremely tall. He got the impression that it was human, even though he knew it couldn't be on a deeper level. The thing bent down towards them and stared in through the window. His mother was missing from the front seat (Mitrovic, 2021).

Just a few days after their initial encounter with the UFO over Windwhistle Hill, the family found themselves driving through the same area. They were clearly much braver than many of us would be. Perhaps their stomachs turned slightly when they once again saw something strange on the left-most side of the road. Two figures were there, one of which was lying down and the other was standing. Thinking that maybe someone had been injured, they started to slow their car when the standing figure abruptly stepped out into the road (Malloy, 2022).

The dark shape only took one step, but nonetheless managed to get one of its feet into the centre of the road. The other foot was still on the grassy verge. At this point, panic was likely setting in. The shape was inhumanly tall, and its legs were "horrendously long and thin" (Malloy, 2022). Mr. Walker swerved to the far side of the road to avoid the figure, and then put the pedal to the floor. None of them looked back, but they all agreed that "no one could possibly have legs that long".

"A 17th century pub sits atop the ridge" [x]

Spectres Among the Singing Trees

Gloria Heather Dixon, of the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA), has done extensive research into the Walker family case. With the help of fellow investigator Robert Moore, four further reports from the area around Windwhistle Hill were uncovered.

A woman told of how she and her husband had found themselves transfixed by the sight of a very large silver object, shaped like a spinning top, near Windwhistle Hill. It was November of 1959, and the couple first caught sight of the UFO at 11pm one night, and then felt as if they were somehow unable to stop watching it until 9am the next morning. They got the impression that they shouldn't tell anyone about what they had seen (Malloy, 2022).

Either in 1976 or 1977, a lorry driver felt his vehicle mysteriously escape his control while passing through Windwhistle Hill. He distinctly remembers the dreamlike sensation of his lorry somehow hovering over the road. An anonymous witness also told Moore that something very similar to the Walker family's experience had befallen her parents on the hill in 1975 (Malloy, 2022).

Sometime in 1991, a farmer in Cricket Malherbie (some 3km northwest of Windwhistle Hill) along with her husband and grandson, recalled seeing a tall humanoid figure peering through the window of their farmhouse. A few days later, the witnesses caught sight of a "saucer-shaped object" (Malloy, 2022).

Finally, a strange tidbit is present in Jenny Randles' (1990) book Mind Monsters. An unnamed service engineer was driving along Chard High Street (four miles to the west of Windwhistle Hill along the A30) at 8am on the 18th of February, 1975. He looked above him to see a winged animal, looking like a giant bird with a wingspan between 12-14ft. 

The edges of the thing's wings were alternately shaded, and Randles claims to have seen a sketch made by the witness which depicts the creature as resembling a long-extinct pterosaur. 

Tantalisingly, Randles also makes brief mention of "another UFO flap" in the area at the time, about which I can find no more information (Randles, 1990).

Bibliography

Briggs, K.M. (1979) An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures. London: Allen Lane.

Green, T. (2009) Arthuriana: Early Arthurian Tradition and the Origins of the Legend. Louth: Lindes Press. 

Weir, A. and Clarke, S. (2018) A Tudor Christmas. London: Jonathan Cape. 

Malloy, T. (2022) The Spooky Somerset Road That is ‘a Hotbed for Supernatural Sightings’, Somerset Live. Available at: https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/spooky-somerset-road-a-hotbed-6887653 (Accessed: 27 December 2025).

Holt, A.L. (1986) East Somerset: Romantic Routes and Mysterious Byways. London: Charles Skilton.

Mitrovic, G. (2021) UFOs, Humanoids and Strange Phenomena of England. Admit Hub Ref Service. 

Rosales, A.S. (2016) Humanoid Encounters 1975-1979: The Others Amongst Us. CreateSpace. 

Randles, J. (1990) Mind Monsters: Invaders From Inner Space? Wellingborough: Aquarian. 

The Baurú Incident

 It was July 23rd of 1947, and a group of surveyors were working in the countryside near Baurú in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo when they became aware of a loud whistling noise before noticing the sudden arrival of a saucer-shaped craft. All but one of them, José C Higgins, fled the scene in terror. This is his story.

UFO Contact from Uranus 

Higgins, a topographer, watched the object descend. It was a lens-shaped craft with a surrounding flange, and was roughly 150ft in diameter with a 3ft rim and a height of 15ft, according to one source. Its body was 'crossed by tubes in several directions', and it was from said tubes that the whistling sound emanated. The UFO landed about 150ft away from the terrified topographer, and appeared to be supported by four metallic struts that seemed to bend a little.

A beautiful sci-fi depiction of the incident

His curiosity got the better of him as he walked towards the anomalous aircraft, and saw a black glass window on the craft from which two humanoid shapes seemed to be watching him. A door opened beneath the rim of the object and three entities of about 2.15 meters (7ft) in height emerged. They were wearing inflated transparent suits which covered their bodies like 'plastic bags', and there were metal boxes affixed to their backs. Beneath the bubble-like spacesuits, the creatures are visibly clad in colourful shirts and shorts which appeared to be made of paper as opposed to cloth. Their heads lacked eyebrows or any other hair, and their eyes were described as being large and round. Their legs were said to be proportionately larger than those of a human, and all three of the entities appeared to be identical. Higgins couldn't tell if they were male or female, but he claimed that they had 'a certain beauty' about them.

The entities spoke amongst themselves in an unknown language, and Higgins noticed that they chose to remain entirely in the shade except for some very brief periods. One of them pointed a tube-shaped object at him and motioned for him to enter the door of their odd aircraft. Through this door he could see another, inner door and the end of a 'pipe' which was presumably some kind of corridor.

Higgins presumably decided to try and learn something from his unique situation, and so somehow asked the entities where they came from using gestures. All the sources concur that this was what he did - how on earth (or any other planet for that matter) he did it I have no idea. On the ground, one of the aliens drew a dot surrounded by seven circles. The dot was apparently supposed to represent the Sun - which the beings referred to as 'Alamo' in their language. They pointed to the seventh circle (presumably meant to represent Uranus) and named it as 'Orque'. They gestured alternatingly to the seventh circle and their spacecraft, seeming to imply that they had come from Uranus.

Knowing how most of these alien encounter narratives tended to go, Higgins came to the (likely reasonable) conclusion that the entities may try and forcibly transport him to Uranus. As a subtle ploy, he showed them a picture of his wife and said that he either didn't want to leave her, or wished to take her on the seemingly-inevitable trip to Uranus. Falling for his subterfuge, the giants allowed her to leave the scene and he retreated into the forest beyond.

A considerably less accurate depiction

However, Higgins was not yet ready to completely leave the ostensibly-alien entities behind. His curiosity once again got the better of him and he decided to hide in some bushes and watch the humanoids for a bit. As if the situation couldn't get weirder, the entities appeared to be 'playing like children, jumping in the air and throwing enormous stones'. They played these games for roughly half an hour, and then boarded their craft once again after having 'carefully examined their surroundings'. The UFO took off with its signature whistling sound and the giants were never seen again. Except of course for when entities matching their bizarre description almost exactly were seen again in the Swedish town of Uddevalla in December of 1965 by one Richard Höglund!

'Sometimes I doubt that these things can happen. If it were not for the workers with me at the beginning, it might only have been a strange and fascinating dream' - Higgins later mused, presumably in response to questioning about the bizarre incident.

Monsters of Myth?

Legends from all across the world speak of giants constructing megalithic structures in the dark reaches of deep time. Some stories specifically refer to these massive creatures throwing giant stones between themselves to create these structures from those that they drop. Bigfoot encounters often feature the hairy entities throwing stones at alarmed witnesses, and poltergeists are famous for initiating physically-impossible showers of rocks from nowhere. It seems that the Others definitely enjoy rock-throwing for some reason or another...

Sources

I found the information required to tell this baffling tale on a wide range of different websites, including the Cosmic Jokers site which is now unfortunately entirely defunct as well as Thinkaboutit Docs and UFOArchives.