A white light which grows brighter and fades away at irregular intervals is the latest UFO to appear in the skies over Badenoch and Strathspey.

The light which initially looked like a star but one that was too close and intense to be the real thing has been seen in several parts of the area over the past week. And unlike recent close encounters, this one on Sunday night was captured on video camera by Grantown resident Patricia Shearer, who lives on the town's Woodburn Place.

Mrs Shearer said: "I was out with the dog at the front door when I first saw it. There were the house lights and then just by it this bright light which was white.

"It was stationary. I ran in and said to my husband who thought it was a star. But as we watched it got bigger and bigger. We were looking in the direction of Fergus Laing's woods.

"I went and got my camcorder and started to video the light for around six minutes. It got quite bright and then it just faded away.

Her daughter Nicola Henderson said: "I'm not sure what it is. It was definitely something different and unexplained."

A similar light was seen west of Aviemore on Wednesday night beyond the High Burnside development for over 30 minutes.

Reports said that the white light which was first mistaken for a star first glowed brightly and then kept changing in intensity before fading away.

"It was very vivid for a while and then it seemed to burn out before re-appearing only not as bright as previously. The light kept coming and going but never moved before vanishing altogether. It was prominent in the night sky and I expect that other people saw it," said one eye-witness in Aviemore.

It is the latest in a number of reports of mysterious lights since Christmas in Badenoch and Strathspey. There was a spate of sightings over the New Year when the media was filled with UFO reports from London to Shetland.

A badly-damaged wind turbine in Lincolnshire was even offered as proof by some that the lights were attached to a large flying object.

Jennifer Hill and her husband, Andy, were just settling down in their home at Kingussie's Middle Terrace to watch the news at 10pm on Monday, December 29, when they spotted something unusual near the golf club.

However, they described an orange ball round but with an extended end - like a keyhole shape - "sort of shimmering and moving from south to north".

There were hundreds of reports from all over the UK at the time about unexplained orange lights in the sky above the country. Investigators were even called in to study the 300-feet-tall wind turbine at Louth, in Lincolnshire, that had one blade ripped off and another mangled.

Witnesses said was it was damaged when it was struck by a large object at 4am on January 4.

Experts have given several theories for the sightings, from an unusual meteorological event to a sighting of a planet in the night sky.

But Mrs Hill insists that none of these explain what she and her husband saw.

There was also a report of another sighting of "completely alien" UFOs on New Year's Day by a group of holiday-makers.

Primary school support assistant Lyn Meall, her partner Stephen Hebson, son Nathan and parents-in-law Colin and Christine Hebson, said they watched as six orange UFOs gathered in the sky above them as they drove from a Hogmanay party in Grantown to their rented cottage in Nethy Bridge.

"We were driving through forestry when we spotted four orange balls of light in the sky ahead of us," Ms Meall (44) told the media.

"They were equally spaced apart and just hovering there, so I pulled over at the entrance to a farm so we could take a closer look.

"The lights appeared to be coming towards us when suddenly, one by one, they disappeared. A few moments later one appeared to our left that appeared to be burning up.

"Then another emerged from our right which had silver tentacles reaching from it towards the ground, like an octopus.

"We watched for about half-an-hour in total amazement, but decided to drive on when my 11-year-old son said he was scared."