Rendlesham Forest UFO - Penniston‘s route

Shown in orange is the probable route into Rendlesham Forest taken by security guards John Burroughs, Edward Cabansag and Jim Penniston on the first night of the Rendlesham Forest UFO incident, shortly after 3 am on 1980 December 26.

In search of a light that had seemed to descend into the trees, the airmen drove eastwards from the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge, turned right onto a public road and then, after about 50 metres, turned left onto a forest track that is now largely obscured by more recent planting (see the sketch by Jim Penniston). They parked their vehicle at the end of this track and proceeded eastwards on foot towards some unidentified lights seen between the trees. Forestry records show that the area through which they first walked (outlined in white below) was occupied by young Corsican pines that had been planted five years earlier; these would have been only 5–6 feet high, much shorter than the fully grown trees to the east. As the three men headed eastwards, the lights appeared to move between the full-grown trees in front of them and then out into the field beyond. According to the statement by John Burroughs, when they reached the forest edge they saw the lights “down by a farmer’s house”. This house lies on the opposite side of the field at a place called Capel Green. Two nights later, Col Halt also saw a flashing UFO in the same direction but was unable to identify it.

The statements by Burroughs and Cabansag agree that they went past the farmhouse in pursuit of what they termed a “beacon” light until, as Burroughs put it, “we could [see] it was comming [sic] from a lighthouse”. (The local police who were called out at the time made the same identification, as did US airman Chris Armold.) Burroughs and Cabansag both estimated that they went about two miles on foot from their vehicle but this is probably an exaggeration. Other coloured lights were also seen, but the descriptions are too vague for us to be sure where they were or what they might have been.

On the aerial view below, the orange dot labelled ‘landing site’ on the eastern edge of the forest is the spot where a triangle of indentations was found in the ground after daybreak later that same day (December 26). This is also the area where Col Halt took radiation measurements two nights later. To confuse the issue, Sgt Penniston has subsequently claimed to have encountered a landed craft on the western side of the forest in the early hours of December 27. However, there is no independent confirmation of this later claim by Penniston.

Aerial view of the area of the Rendlesham Forest UFO sighting. The orange line shows the route from East Gate into the forest taken by the three witnesses in the early hours of 1980 December 26, shortly after a bright light was seen apparently plunging to Earth over the forest. The three men parked their vehicle in the region of the arrowhead and proceeded on foot to the east. The area outlined in white contained only young trees at the time. The point labelled ‘Landing site’ on the eastern edge of the forest is where marks on the ground and on the trees were found after daybreak later that day. In an on-camera discussion for German TV in 2009 February, Col Halt told me that he approached the site along the wider west–east track some few hundred yards to the south, finally turning left onto a north–south track between the trees. (Image from Microsoft Virtual Earth; annotation by Ian Ridpath)

Last updated 2010 July