Lochaber residents have been left baffled after encounters with mysterious UFOs. And their sightings tie in with other experiences in the Highlands and across the UK.

Only last week, a turbine on a wind farm in Lincolnshire was badly damaged after locals saw similar lights in the sky, one of which was seen heading towards the farm site. This has prompted claims from Ministry of Defence insiders that the turbine could have been wrecked by a secret stealth bomber on a training mission in the vicinity.

Now locals here are looking for answers after several sightings of mysterious yellow/orange lights in the skies above Fort William and Ardgour just before New Year.

Griogair Craig (37), who lives at Clovullin, Ardgour, was in his garden on Hogmanay when he spotted an "unusual" light in the sky.

Griogair, a boat supervisor at the Underwater Centre in Fort William, said: "It was very high up and was yellow with an orange/red glow on the outside.

"It was there for a good 10 minutes. It was moving in a strange pattern - forwards, sideways and then round in circles - before it suddenly vanished. My next door neighbours, about four of them, also witnessed this. Yes it was Hogmanay, but I can assure you I was sober at the time!"

Griogair said he would love to hear a rational explanation for the lights and wonders if anyone else might have seen them."

He added: "It was definitely no military aircraft as far as I am concerned. Nothing moves that fast. My father was in the RAF and I'm very interested in the subject of UFOs. There seem to be more and more sightings these days. I definitely believe there is something out there; I don't think we're alone."

A work colleague of Griogair, who asked not to be named, told the LN he had seen two "strange" lights drifting over Camusnagual, near Fort William, on the same night. However, he said he was sceptical of their origin.

He said: "There were two lights hanging in the sky. They were orange and moving very slowly.

"They seemed to come up in a lazy arc behind Camusnagaul and then drifted slowly southwards down the loch. Personally I'm not convinced they were anything out of this world, so to speak, and am more inclined to think someone had put them there as a prank."

The LN has also had reports from two separate sources of "mysterious" lights coming over the hills behind the village of Corpach, near Fort William.

New Year period encounters with mysterious UFOs have also been reported by residents in Black Isle and Easter Ross.

Billie Wealleans, an advertising executive, saw three orange lights which then disappeared suddenly, above her home at North Kessock on the Black Isle.

And Lilian MacDonald, from Tain, reported seeing a group of three bright orange lights over Roskeen Church, near Invergordon, on New Year's Day.

One week later Mrs MacDonald, accompanied by her husband Alan and their son, saw a single large bright orange light above Scotsburn, at Kildary, which she reported to the police. On both occasions, the lights disappeared without trace.

Meanwhile, there have been a series of UFO sightings reported across the UK from just after Christmas, from Essex in the south of England right up to Scotland.