A Scots man who believes he may have seen a UFO while bagging a munro has described it as "a special moment" for him.
Derek Craig, of Knightswood in Glasgow, had been bagging Ben Vorlich and Stùc a' Chròin at Loch Earn on Monday, January 3 when he noticed something in the sky.
The 41-year-old had been joined by two of his own friends, Scott McCandless, 43, and Christopher Lee, 43, as well as his son and his two friends.
As the older group made their way back down to join 26-year-old Callum Smith, and his pals, something suddenly caught their attention.
In pitch darkness, just after 4.30pm and in a valley roughly 2,000ft high, the trio saw a strange object shooting across the sky.
Derek explained: "It was a like a wee ball of power, I have no idea what it was, it was unbelievable.
"It was coming back, disappearing, shooting away. You could actually see it pulsing, it was just powerful.
Asked whether it could possibly have been a shooting star, the 41-year-old replied: "No, this thing just moves in so many directions, a shooting star shoots but this thing was doing loop-de-loops.
"At one point, it shoots right up and it pulses twice and it zooms away, it was like something out of Star Wars.
"It also zig-zags in the sky, disappears and then it just appears again."
Derek, who had started his own YouTube channel just weeks before, had been filming the expedition to share online later.
Although he was initially surprised at the sight in real life, he only realised just how much of a unique experience it really was at home.
The Glasgow native continued: "I've never experienced anything like this in my life.
"It's all I'm thinking about constantly, it's so strange what's happened to me."
Derek, who first took up the popular Scottish hobby of munro bagging with Callum in March 2021, has also changed his thoughts on whether there is other life out there.
He said: "I never thought before that there was, I was really skeptical but since I've seen this, I totally believe this was something else.
"That video has changed my beliefs.: He joked: "I don't think we're even human now, it's playing with my head that much."
Derek added: "I can't stop thinking about it, it's absolutely changed my life.
"It was pretty amazing to see."
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