As boys the brothers had been playing separately in woods close to their home in Bodfari, near Denbigh, when they saw a UFO hovering above the trees. They had recounted the sightings to their family on both occasions, but the stories had been dismissed as more likely to have been aircraft than alien spaceships.

But the whole family had the surprise of their lives more than a decade later when, in January 1986, they, their siblings and parents also saw a craft.

One of the family members drew an artistic impression (top) of what they saw close to the TV reception mast above Moel Parc Mountain from about 7.45-9.30pm on a clear, wintry evening.

They watched as the object, which was brilliant white with a red haze beneath it, hovered motionless in the night sky whilst the bottom half of the craft, which had coloured lights, appeared to rotate. None of the family was unduly concerned as they watched in wonder, trying to work out wht it was they were seeing. Eventually it passed directly overhead.

The family reacted differently to their sighting. Some dismissed it, others were angry that they had seen something but couldn't explain it and others were fascinated and wanted to try to understand what they had seen.

The Welsh Federation of Independent Ufologists became aware of the sighting after a report had been received by North Wales Police. The RAF was contacted and reported that there had been no flights scheduled to go over the area on that evening and no radar control covers the area so nothing was recorded or reported.