The Calvine UFO Photograph

Calvine is a hamlet in Perth and Kinross, about 12 miles from Pitlochry, near the A9. In 1990 two young men worked as chefs in a Pitlochry hotel. Their names have never been made public. A former colleague, Richard Grieve, says they worked at Fishers Hotel.

Saturday, 4 August 1990. Around 9 pm. After their shift, the two men parked near Calvine, crossed a barbed-wire fence and walked onto the moor. Their story reaches us through retired RAF press officer Craig Lindsay, who spoke to one of them by phone. Above them, he recalled, hovered "this weird grey diamond shaped object, absolutely silent."

Then came the noise of a jet engine. An aircraft passed down the valley, north to south, behind the object. A jet came back the other way. That was when the photographs began. The jet, Lindsay said, "sort of banked around the object...as if the pilot had seen the object and was sort of manoeuvring around it to get a better view."

After about ten minutes, it ended. "Suddenly it just went vertically upwards high into the sky and vanished with no sound whatsoever." By one account the men leapt back over the fence. Other versions say they sheltered under trees.

Six colour photographs went to the Glasgow Daily Record. The paper never ran the story. A print went to Lindsay at the RAF Pitreavie press office, and he faxed copies to the MoD. Then the negatives and prints vanished. The MoD says the negatives went back to the newspaper. The paper denies receiving them. For years the only public trace was two poor photocopies released in 2009.

But Lindsay had kept one print, tucked inside a volume of The World's Aircraft. In 2022 Dr David Clarke of Sheffield Hallam University found him. The Daily Mail billed the image as "the most spectacular UFO photo ever captured."

In September 1990 the negatives were examined and sent to JARIC at RAF Brampton. Analysts identified the jet as a Harrier and found a barely visible second aircraft. The MoD summary recorded a "Large diamond shaped UFO hovering for about 10 minutes before ascending vertically upwards at high speed." Yet its press line said it had no record of Harriers there. Nick Pope, who later ran the MoD UFO desk, says analysts found "No evidence of hoaxing." The file closed: "object unexplained, case closed, no further action."

The debate has never settled. Belgian skeptic Wim van Utrecht proposed a Christmas star ornament hung from the overhanging trees. Former AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick saw a reflection in water, though critics note there is no water body on the hillside. Gordon Hudson suggested a mountain peak poking through a cloud inversion. Pope and Clarke lean towards a secret aircraft. "I do not think that mysterious aircraft arrived from another galaxy," Clarke wrote. The MoD denies authorising any such flights. Analyst Andrew Robinson concluded: "If the image is the result of a hoax, no evidence of this is present in the image."

On the back of the print, in Daily Record handwriting, is one name. Kevin Russell. Researchers traced man after man who shared it. In May 2024 a former Pitlochry Hydro Hotel porter came forward, and denied any knowledge of the sighting. James Fox's 2024 documentary The Program called Calvine "the most compelling photographic case in (UFO) history." The photographers remain unknown. The object remains unexplained.