Ilkley Moor and the Philip Spencer account

Witness account

A man identified in published accounts as retired police officer Philip Spencer reported seeing and photographing a small figure on Ilkley Moor on 1 December 1987. The episode became associated with apparent missing time and an alleged abduction reconstructed afterward under hypnosis. The image is a central part of the case’s public history, but its interpretation as a nonhuman being is contested.

Public record

Bibliographic research traces the case through books by original British investigators in the early 1990s and later discussion. The earliest narrative and the hypnotic reconstruction must be distinguished: later versions placed the photographing of the figure within a more elaborate sequence involving a return from an encounter.

Sources

• 1987.1201 Ilkley Moor photo
• Ilkley Moor UFO incident