by Richard Evans, North Wales Weekly News

THE hills above Conwy, Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan have long been a hotspot for UFO sightings. The area between Conwy Mountain and the upland ridges which form the backdrop of Pen and Llan are formed from granite as the remnants from a prehistoric volcano.

Human settlements found on the hills date back to the Bronze Age, as the remains of druid ceremonial monuments still exist as evidence of the area’s rich history.

But a more recent phenomenon indicates stranger goings-on in the hills above Conwy and the two slate towns. In early December 1979 retired post office engineer Richard Vaughan reported a UFO over Conwy Mountain. Mr Vaughan, of Llandudno, spotted the strange oval object while walking in a gale.

The UFO was described as white coloured on top and dark underneath.

“I saw something flying over Conwy Mountain. Then it stopped for three minutes, moved on, stopped again, and then moved on and disappeared in the glow,” he said.

“What puzzles me is how a thing like that could stay still in that wind. I thought at first I was imagining things.”

In March 1988, third year Aberconwy schoolboys Nigel Haris, Craig Roberts and Justin Everley reported a flying saucer hovering over the Sychnant Pass. The boys were heading down towards Dwygyfylchi on a run when they spotted the object in the sky and later reported the sighting to police.

Craig said: “Nigel stopped because he had stitch, but Justin and I kept on running, and as we were jogging along Justin looked up and said, ‘Oh God, a flying saucer.’

“It was level with the mountaintop, travelling between 50-60mph. In about 10 seconds it had disappeared over the mountain.”

Just two months earlier police were called out after a UFO was spotted in January over Penmaenmawr. Insp Ian Hughes Jones said in late January that year: “We received a call at 9.10pm and an officer went to look. “We can confirm that we saw a very unusual light that shrank and grew until it eventually faded away.”

More recently reports of UFOs in the area around Conwy Mountain have included sightings of brilliant white lights seen from across Conwy River in Deganwy.

Back in 1979, George Lake of Llanfairfechan claimed Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner had visited Penmaenmawr and declared the hills of the area the most magnetic in Europe.

Conwy Mountain, or Mynydd y Dref, which leads to the foothills of the Carneddau range of mountains is the remains of an ancient volcano which erupted around 450 million years ago.

At the summit of Conwy Mountain there are remains of Neolithic hut circles and the Iron Age hillfort of Castell Caer Seion.

Llanfairfechan councillor Andrew Hinchliffe says UFO sightings date back to the 1930s in the area. “I know a gentleman who was above Penmaenmawr in his youth in the 1930s when he saw a large silver object in the sky, too big to be a plane of that day.

It was travelling towards the Menai Straits. There are a million explanations for UFOs, but if people see something, they believe what they see,” he said.