The theory behind the 'Spaceman on the Solway Firth' photo mystery
Jim Templeton, a fireman and keen amateur photographer from Carlisle, took his wife and five‑year‑old daughter Elizabeth to Burgh Marsh, near Burgh by Sands, on 23 May 1964.
Looking out over the Solway Firth, he shot three colour photographs of Elizabeth sitting in the grass.
Templeton later said only his wife and two elderly women in a distant car were on the marsh at the time, and that he saw no one standing behind his daughter when he pressed the shutter.
When the films came back from the chemist, one frame showed what appeared to be a tall white figure behind the girl, with a bulky torso and a helmet‑like head against the bright sky.
The image that became known as the “Solway Firth Spaceman” or “Cumberland Spaceman”.
Templeton took the print to Carlisle police, who said they saw nothing criminal or obviously tampered with.
Film manufacturer Kodak examined the negative, found no signs of fakery or double exposure, and even offered a reward to anyone who could prove it was a hoax, nobody did.
The Cumberland News ran the story, and it was quickly picked up by national papers including the Daily Mail and Daily Express, then by outlets overseas.
The spaceman photo became a staple of 1960s UFO coverage, reproduced in magazines and books and later on television, especially as the space race and Cold War increased the public fascination with astronauts and aliens.
As the story grew, further claims attached themselves to it.
Templeton later said two men in dark suits, who did not give names but referred to each other only as “Number 9” and “Number 11”, visited him at Carlisle fire station, drove him back to Burgh Marsh, and questioned him at the exact spot where the photo was taken.
After asking about a supposed “second spaceman”, they left abruptly, leaving Templeton to walk back to the city on his own.
However, technicians at the Woomera missile range in South Australia reportedly told Templeton they had seen figures resembling “spacemen” near a launch pad during an aborted Blue Streak missile test, on the same day in 1964, and later recognised the Solway image when it appeared in an Australian newspaper.
The Blue Streak rocket had been developed at RAF Spadeadam in Cumbria, which helped cement the link in UFO conspiracies.
Fifty years on, researchers argue the mystery is almost certainly photographic rather than extraterrestrial.
In a detailed BBC and blog investigation in 2014, journalist and UFO historian Dr David Clarke concluded that the “spaceman” is Jim Templeton’s wife Annie, captured with her back to the camera and over‑exposed against the bright sky.
Templeton, however, never accepted this. Until his death in 2011 he maintained that the figure was real, that he had not seen his wife in the frame, and that the photograph was not staged or altered.
The Solway Spaceman has attracted international media attention including more recently The Joe Rogan Podcast
Do you believe the explanation given, or was there really an astronaut?
