Swansea

Swansea was part of one extraordinary South Wales night.

On 19 January 1983, a wave of triangular-object reports crossed South Wales — and several districts of this coastal city were a documented part of it.

19 Jan 1983The key night

8Verified reports · 1909–1983

1909Earliest report

SeveralDistricts across the city

One night, across the city

The districts of 19 January 1983.

Uplands·Bryn-Hyfryd·Townhill·Trallwn·Morriston·Kilvey Hill

01 / the night

A city on the bay, caught up in one night.

Swansea is a coastal city in south Wales, opening onto Swansea Bay with the Gower peninsula beyond it. It is not famous for a single UFO case, and this page does not try to invent one. What it has is more interesting: a documented role in a genuinely strange South Wales evening.

On 19 January 1983, reports of large, low, triangular objects came in from several parts of South Wales. Swansea was not the whole story — the night is usually remembered as a wider South Wales episode — but a striking number of Swansea districts produced accounts that evening: Uplands, Bryn-Hyfryd, Townhill, Trallwn and Morriston among them.

Some witnesses described huge triangular forms, dark against the sky, moving low and slowly. Others described rings or formations of lights. These were separate accounts from different parts of the same city; nothing here proves a single object, and nothing here claims one. The interest is the concentration itself.

Swansea's thread is also older than 1983. A mystery-airship report appears in the record for 1909, and a further sighting near Kilvey Hill in 1978. The city had already shown up in Welsh aerial-mystery records long before the triangles.

02 / standouts

Two reports worth stopping at.

19 Jan 1983 · directly documented

A driving instructor, a low black triangle, and a rooftop on Long Oaks Avenue.

Witness: Orllwyn Jones, driving instructor, 20 Long Oaks Avenue, Uplands / Sketty.

At around 6.15pm on 19 January 1983, Orllwyn Jones reported watching a black triangular object — about the size of a saloon car, roughly eighteen inches high, with three corner lights and a low “chugging” sound — move slowly across Long Oaks Avenue and skim a rooftop before passing on.

It is the richest verified Swansea account of the night: a close, specific, first-hand description recorded in the SUFON case archive.

Read the original SUFON account →

No photograph of the event exists — the hero image is location context only.

Earlier history · directly documented

Before the triangles: the 1909 mystery-airship report.

Long before 1983, Swansea had already appeared in Welsh aerial-mystery records.

In May 1909, at the height of the “mystery airship” period, a cigar-shaped object with lights was reported over Swansea. It sits in the SUFON archive as one of a cluster of 1909 airship reports across south Wales.

It is not presented here as a triangular craft or as proof of anything — only as evidence that Swansea’s recorded thread begins much earlier than the triangles, in the great airship wave of the early twentieth century.

Explore the SUFON case files →

03 / around the city

Where the reports landed.

Uplands / Sketty

Home of the strongest account — Orllwyn Jones on Long Oaks Avenue, and a second report from Beechwood Road describing a huge object with a ring of coloured lights beneath it.

Bryn-Hyfryd

Two teenage witnesses reported two very low triangular objects, each with three white lights.

Townhill

Part of the wider triangle wave reported across Swansea that evening.

Trallwn / Crymlyn Bog

Two police detectives reportedly observed a large, unusually silent object — or a formation of lights — moving toward Crymlyn Bog.

Morriston / Clase

A public report came in from Clase while officers were observing unusual lights elsewhere.

Kilvey Hill / Penlan

Site of an earlier 1978 report, when a 13-year-old described an object near the hill around 8pm.

04 / the record

A compact chronology.

Nine entries, from the 1909 airship report to the 1983 night and a later note from 1987.

24 May 1909

Swansea — mystery-airship-period report: cigar shape with lights.

Directly documented · Read SUFON Case 526 →

11 Jan 1978

Kilvey Hill / Penlan — a 13-year-old describes an object near the hill around 8pm.

Specialist archive · Source: SUFON archive →

19 Jan 1983

Uplands / Long Oaks Avenue — Orllwyn Jones’s low black triangle, skimming a rooftop.

Directly documented · Read SUFON Case 135 →

19 Jan 1983

Uplands / Beechwood Road — a second witness describes a huge object over houses with a ring of coloured lights underneath.

Specialist archive · Source: SUFON case files →

19 Jan 1983

Bryn-Hyfryd — two teenagers report two very low triangular objects with three white lights each.

Specialist archive · Read SUFON case →

19 Jan 1983

Townhill — a report associated with the wider South Wales triangle wave.

Specialist archive · Read SUFON case →

19 Jan 1983

Trallwn / Crymlyn Bog — two police detectives report a large, unusually silent object moving toward the bog.

Specialist archive · Source: SUFON case files →

19 Jan 1983

Morriston / Clase — a public report from Clase while officers watched unusual lights elsewhere.

Specialist archive · Read SUFON case →

1987

Swansea (and Port Talbot) — two later triangle reports, merged here as a single supplementary note.

Supplementary · The UAP Map civilian archive (low-evidence entry)

Reading the record: directly documented means the account sits in a named specialist case file with witness detail. Specialist archive means it appears in SUFON’s Night of the Triangles coverage but has not been opened to a dedicated case page in this build. The 1987 line is a low-evidence entry from the project's own civilian archive, kept here for completeness and clearly separated. A single 2005 sphere report also exists in that archive but is background only and not counted above.

04 / wider record

The wider Swansea record.

Swansea’s full specialist-archive record is far larger than one night. Below, grouped by era, is the wider documented set — kept compact so the 1983 night remains the centrepiece. Every entry is drawn from the complete SUFON Wales chronology.

1913 — the airship wave. Uplands light (18 Jan) · Swansea whirring noise & hooter (18 Jan) · Uplands object with red light (21 Jan) · Clyne Valley bright light (21 Jan) · Swansea Bay airship (2 Feb).

1950s. Killay silver object (1950) · Gowerton fireball (1950) · Swansea “black pencil” (1954) · Blaen-y-Maes cylindrical object (1956).

1960s. Swansea Bay flaming cigar (1961) · Sketty white oval (1963) · Plasmarle bright light & burning sensation (1965) · Ynysforgan disc / grey aliens / missing time (1966) · Treboeth 8–9 lights (1967) · Waunarlwydd three white objects (1969).

1970s. Clydach white ball (1970) · Gorseinon dark domed disc (1973) · Mayhill silver disc (1977) · Townhill disc & ovals (1977) · Dunvant three green balls (1977) · Swansea Bay “tadpole” dome (1978) · Felindre golden orb / missing time (1978).

1980s–2000s. Penlan metallic disc (1981) · Three Crosses angular object (1982) · Swansea flying black human figure (2010) · Loughor two egg-shaped objects (2010) · Llansamlet three lights (2011) · Caswell Bay red sphere (2012).

All wider-record entries are single-family specialist archive (SUFON) and are linked via the sources below.

05 / sources

Sources to explore.

SUFON · direct case19 Jan 1983 — Uplands, Swansea (Case 135)Read the original SUFON account SUFON · databaseUAP Case Files (Wales)Explore the SUFON case files SUFON · chronologySwansea UFO Network database listExplore the Wales database BUFORA · archiveBUFORA JournalExplore the BUFORA archive