Scammonden Dam, nr Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
UFOData’s own Sacha Christie arranged a skywatch to take place at Scammonden Dam in West Yorkshire on Midsummer’s Day. Maybe those mysterious universal forces that stick their heads out of the interdimensional ether every now and again would do so for our band of intrepid UFO hunters tonight!
After almost mowing down a sweet little lamb en route to the Turnpike Inn, our meeting place in Sowerby Bridge, we (myself and Simon, my bud) arrived to find Sacha, Mick, Rebecca and Danny, gesticulating wildly in the car park. We entered this semi-remote tavern and settled down to a drink while waiting for the rest of our group to arrive.
The Turnpike is a nice pub, a typical country hostelry and not at all like the Slaughtered Lamb from An American Werewolf in London (as I had previously feared).
Eventually, our group was complete with the arrival of Andy, Steve and Neil. Thank God, Andy knew how to get to the dam, because the rest of us were clueless! Soon a convoy of motors was winding through the West Yorkshire countryside towards the open water that is one of the county’s most famous landmarks.
Scammonden
Dam lies directly beside the busy M62 motorway and has gained a reputation
of something of a UFO hotspot, with flying triangles and all other manner of
objects being sighted in the area. Andy told us about several anomalous
aerial objects he had witnessed personally.
We arrived at the dam and the heavens opened!
Not to be dissuaded from our mission by piffling things like howling wind and icy, torrential rain, we headed towards a bonfire (thinking it was somebody having a Midsummer Party), only to find it was a ditched, burning car! Beating a hasty retreat to the main car park, our skywatch could begin in earnest…
… or not.
While several of us brave souls cast scorn upon the weather and got wet through, the more sensible members of our group sat in the cars. Boo!
Soon,
the police and fire brigade arrived to extinguish the blaze that we could
still see flickering on the opposite side of the lake, so we all made jokes
about the blue, flashing lights being aliens etc. etc.
With midnight fast approaching and no sign of the horrid weather abating, most of us decided to head back home (yeah, we’re quitters!). Sacha, Andy and Steve (not me, the other Steve) remained until about 3am, but nothing was reported.
With the first UFOData Skywatch being something of a washout (Neil blamed the New World Order, HAARP and everybody else…), we promised each other that another one would be arranged soon, hopefully with better weather conditions.
Keep and eye on www.ufodata.co.uk for more news on the next skywatch!
-Steve Johnson