The Enchanted Hill

Pixie-Led

English folklore tells us that fairies dwell in hollow hills - a tradition probably inspired by dim memories of Neolithic burial mounds. Travellers straying too close to a fairy hill were liable to find themselves led astray - or 'pixie-led' - by the inhabitants, who resented mortals trespassing on their domains.

"Many... are sent forth to lead poor travellers astray, to deceive them with those false lights called will-o-the-wisp, or to guide them a fine dance in trudging home through every peril," one country dweller told writer Robert Southey in 1832.

In some folk tales, pixie-led travellers are lost to the world forever. In others, they are found only after the intervention of the local 'cunning man', or wizard.

In August 1939, a boy and his mother experienced being pixie-led though countryside near Guisborough, Cleveland, after encountering a mysterious ball of light and a pair of entities who might equally belong in folklore or science fiction.

The Little Men on the Hill

That afternoon, 10-year-old Jack Quinn and his mother had climbed a local beauty spot called Rosebery Topping. They suddenly felt the ground start vibrating and heard a "strange humming sound" coming from beneath their feet. As Jack's mother hurried him down the hill, he slipped and twisted his ankle.

Rosebery Topping.

"As Mum knelt down to have a look, the noise got louder and there was a strong smell of something burnt, like burnt paper," Jack told investigator Lynn Picknett decades later. "Then a big white globe of light suddenly appeared from nowhere."

"The sphere of light didn't move at first - it just sat on the heather about 4 or 5 yards away. I suppose it was about 6ft across - quite large enough to terrify us half to death. Then two little men appeared on the brow of the hill. Even though they were about 30 yards away, we could see that they were tiny - maybe about 3ft high."

The little men wore "shiny" green clothing and "tight-fitting" helmets. "They were jabbering away to each other in high-pitched voices," remembered Jack. "Then they looked across at us and pointed, getting excited. The globe of light moved closer to us, and Mum held me close and started praying."

Vanishing Act

The light circled the terrified witnesses and the humming sound grew even more intense. Suddenly, the sound ceased - and both the globe and the little men "seemed to dematerialise". As Jack and his Mother walked down the hill, they heard "weird high-pitched laughter" echoing around them. Then the area fell eerily silent, with not even birdsong being audible.

"The light turned strange - sort of a nasty thick yellow," continued Jack, "and there was that ugly burning smell again. We both felt very tired... and were tempted just to fall asleep up there on the hill. But Mum was a fighter. Something made her realise we'd be lost if we lay down and slept."

Lost

The Quinns had intended to walk down the track that led across and away from the hill, but bizarrely they were unable to find it.

"We couldn't find the way. I can't tell you how odd that was," said Jack. "We'd been up there dozens of times - and anyway once you get to that point you can actually see the track, so there's no possibility of getting lost. But somehow we did."

After wandering around "for something like half-an-hour," the pair suddenly found themselves standing at the foot of the hill without knowing how they had got there. They also seemed to be missing a sizeable chunk of time.

"We'd gone up the hill at about two in the afternoon," explained Jack. "But although on our reckoning it should only be four on the outside, when we got back to the road it was six thirty!"

An Airship and an Angel

The Quinns later asked their neighbours if they had seen anything odd near the hill that day. One - an off-duty policeman - said he had seen a small shiny airship that made a loud humming noise. Another - a 12-yr-old girl - claimed to have seen an "angel" in the heather.

Sources

Lynn Picknett: The Mammoth Book of UFOs, pp38-42.