1905:
The Mysterious Lights Of Ergyn, Wales
Above: Washington Times illustration of the case (click)
The Egryn Lights, or the Harlech Lights Flap, was a wave of unexplained light phenomena that occurred in Gwynedd, North Wales, in around 1905. One day a huge arc, like a kind of aurora, was seen spanning from the mountains into the sea. After that, the lights came. At the time there was a religious revival which had been started by a Mary Jones, who preached at a small chapel in Egryn between Barmouth and Harlech. The lights soon came to be associated with the revival.
Journalists from London and other cities flocked skeptically to the area, but were soon shocked by the lights and wrote back a series of very intriguing articles. Kevin McClure summarised these events in a well known book of the 1980s called Stars and Rumours of Stars.
The area has a history of strange lights. As Fiery Exhalations in Wales notes, the 1905 flap wasn't the only one in the area: there was another in 1693 and 1694. At this time it was called the Harlech Meteor, meteor being the general name for any unexplained light, which at the time included what we now call meteors.
“Winter of 1694. — A pestilential vapour resembling a weak blue flame arose during a fortnight or three weeks out of a sandy, marshy tract called Morfa Byden, and crossed over a channel of 8 miles to Harlech. It set fire on that side to 16 ricks of hay and 2 barns, one filled with hay, the other with corn. It infected the grass in such a manner that cattle, etc., died, yet men eat of it with impunity. It was easily dispelled: any great noise, sounding of horns, discharging of guns, at once repelled it. Moved only by night, and appeared at times, but less frequently; after this it disappeared.”
Source: Wikipedia
Above: Washington Times illustration of the case (click)
The Egryn Lights, or the Harlech Lights Flap, was a wave of unexplained light phenomena that occurred in Gwynedd, North Wales, in around 1905. One day a huge arc, like a kind of aurora, was seen spanning from the mountains into the sea. After that, the lights came. At the time there was a religious revival which had been started by a Mary Jones, who preached at a small chapel in Egryn between Barmouth and Harlech. The lights soon came to be associated with the revival.
Journalists from London and other cities flocked skeptically to the area, but were soon shocked by the lights and wrote back a series of very intriguing articles. Kevin McClure summarised these events in a well known book of the 1980s called Stars and Rumours of Stars.
The area has a history of strange lights. As Fiery Exhalations in Wales notes, the 1905 flap wasn't the only one in the area: there was another in 1693 and 1694. At this time it was called the Harlech Meteor, meteor being the general name for any unexplained light, which at the time included what we now call meteors.
“Winter of 1694. — A pestilential vapour resembling a weak blue flame arose during a fortnight or three weeks out of a sandy, marshy tract called Morfa Byden, and crossed over a channel of 8 miles to Harlech. It set fire on that side to 16 ricks of hay and 2 barns, one filled with hay, the other with corn. It infected the grass in such a manner that cattle, etc., died, yet men eat of it with impunity. It was easily dispelled: any great noise, sounding of horns, discharging of guns, at once repelled it. Moved only by night, and appeared at times, but less frequently; after this it disappeared.”
Source: Wikipedia
