A glowing object in the sky left Joan Morrison gasping in amazement as she looked out of her kitchen window.

The Inverness woman had visitors at Burnside Cottage on Tower Brae South last Friday when she went to make a cup of coffee and saw the UFO.

"I'm not a sci-fi buff or anything like that but I just couldn't believe what I was seeing," said Mrs Morrison, a 58 year-old widow.

"I suppose it can best be described as a big square thing with a yellow and orange glow. There was no sound so it definitely wasn't a plane or a helicopter.

"It passed right across my kitchen window and went behind a holly tree in my garden.

"I called to my friends who were visiting from Aviemore and we dashed out to the patio. But by then it's shape had changed and they could only see a slim line.

"One of them suggested a Chinese lantern but I don't even know what they are."

Mrs Morrison talked about her experience to neighbours and one them recalled a story which appeared in the Highland News in January about similar sightings in the Highlands.

A sighting of an unexplained flying object was reported to the paper. In January, advertising executive Billie Wealleans from North Kessock told of a strange encounter when she spotted orange lights in the sky above her home.

Similar sightings were reported by people in Easter Ross and Lochaber.

The reports followed an incident in Lincolnshire when a wind turbine was badly damaged after locals saw similar lights travelling towards a wind farm site.

Ministry of Defence insiders claimed the turbine could have been damaged by a Stealth bomber which was on a training mission in the vicinity.

A website UFOINFO shows many different accounts of UFO sightings and Mrs Morrison said the one that came closest to fitting the description of what she saw was experienced by a woman in Renfrewshire.

"She described how she had been working in the West End of Paisley and was alerted to a light in the sky by two strangers," Mrs Morrison said.

"She said it looked like a large, flat orange shaped dish.

"The object wasn't flashing but remained very bright and was hovering - moving from right to left and back again.

"The light I saw was orange and yellow and it was a large, flat square. I had a really good view.

"It was right in front of my eyes. I couldn't believe what I was seeing pass straight by my window.

"It's something I've never witnessed before and I was amazed."