Last week The Courier reported on sightings by several caravan owners at Claylands caravan park, Cabus, of firey orange lights in the skies over the Myerscough area, which suddenly darted towards Bleasdale.

Mr Darren Shepherd, who owns a lodge at Claylands caravan park said: "I have heard about this type of thing over the Bowland moors late at night. I thought it was a myth but when I saw it, it was weird!"

When he spotted the fiery light Mr Shepherd grabbed his camera and managed to get some footage. He said: "It was hard to follow as it moved in the most mysterious way.''

While some people are convinced there were extra-terrestrial goings-on in the skies above greater Garstang on the second weekend of the month, others have more down to earth explanations.

What appears to be a plausible explanation came from a Cabus resident whose family was having a birthday celebration in their garden close to the fields overlooking the Trough of Bowland.

The resident said: "On Saturday, August 8, we had a birthday celebration during which from about 8.30pm till 10.30pm we released about 10 Chinese lanterns.

These were shaped like small hot air balloons and floated off over the fells. I wonder if they were they the reported UFOs?"

Another resident, David Kerfoot, contacted The Courier to say he had also noticed about 20 small orange ball high in the skies over Standish, near Wigan, at about 11pm on August 8.

He then realised they were a group of hot air balloons on a night flight.

He added: "When the balloons were up high in the sky they were not distinguishable and the movements were not consistent with how you would expect a hot air balloon to fly. However the timescales would tend to match a flight heading south over Cabus."

And another reader, Nicola Cragg said she had seen a similar UFO-type sight more recently – on the night of Tuesday, August 18, over the Forton area, north of Cabus.

She said: "It was like a big ball of bright orange/gold light moving across the night sky, with no sound at all, It wasn't really high in the sky. It came from over the hills near Harrisend Fell towards Forton, then veered to the left and of it went! When we read the article in The Courier, I was shocked to read that other people have seen it."

* What do you think? Are you convinced? Or is the Chinese lanterns explanation the real one? Let us know on garstang.courier@lep.co.uk