The so-called “Calvine Photograph” appears to show a massive diamond-shaped object in the sky and what looks like a Harrier jet in the distance.

This fascinating UFO photo taken by two hikers in the Scottish Highlands over 30 years ago and considered lost, has been uncovered.

On August 4, 1990, two young men were working as chefs in a hotel in Pitlochry, a Highland Perthshire town, just outside the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. At 9pm, after a long day in a hot kitchen, they drove about 13 miles north along the A9 to Calvine, a spot on the edge of the Cairngorms, for a walk in the hills.

They hadn’t gone far when they saw a huge, solid, diamond-shaped object, about 100ft long, hovering silently in the sky above them. Terrified, they hid in some bushes and looked up. Minutes later, they heard the scream of a jet aircraft going north: In 1990, RAF Leuchars in Fife had two squadrons of Tornado fighters on 24-hour standby to intercept Russian intruder aircraft.

The jet came back and circled the ‘thing’ before heading off on its original course, as if the pilot had seen the object too and had come back for a closer look. Eventually the two men stuck their camera out from where they were hiding and fired off six frames. At that point, the object shot vertically upwards and disappeared way, way up into the sky.

The picture is described by some as the “world’s best” UFO image, it was found after years of research by academic and journalist Dr David Clarke.

They were handed to Scotland’s Daily Record newspaper who then gave them to the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

For reasons unknown, the story was never published and nothing more was heard from the MoD.

This led to the modern myth of the “Calvine Photograph” – with the images never being seen by the public, until now.