A meteor, right?

Your article about the flight of the meteor across Loch Ness (17 March) brought back memories of an August evening in 1957.

I was on holiday at Carradale and, after the customary soft drinks at The Bungalow Cafe, along with several other teenagers, I repaired to a spot opposite the Carradale hotel, where we resumed our conversation. Suddenly a bright light appeared above us. The entire area was lit up as though under a phosphorescent lamp. The light seemed to move from the east. Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it vanished, slightly to the west of our vantage point.

All sorts of theories were put forward, the most plausible being that we had witnessed a meteor in the final throes of its descent from the heavens. A couple of us set off for the field where the light had vanished. The following day, the authorities said it was indeed a small meteorite, a “smoking rock” about the size of a football. I never did see the rock or have any confirmation of this phenomenon. I wonder if there are any readers in their seventies, who were in Kintyre that evening and may remember the event? I don’t imagine that there were any scientific instruments near the vicinity to record it.

J Lindsay Walls

8, Buckstone Wood

Edinburgh