We all know what a ‘wonderful’ place Crop Circles UK is on Facebook. Harassment, prejudice, abuse and almost every negative -ism you can ever want to uncover. But let’s not forget the tall crop circle tales that get relaid there every year. 2024 was no different, and whilst some long standing myths have been addressed elsewhere, we’ve got some newer ones to analyse. And what a crop they are, making you realise how much nonsense gets circulated and accepted as fact.

To avoid repetition, we’ve largely avoided the inclusion of factoids which have already been covered in our previous mythbusting features.

This one comes from Noel O’Gara and made us smile.

First up, where does anyone train and earn a formal qualification in crop circle making? You can’t. Even if we widen the criteria to being a ‘qualified artist’, there have been extremely few of them through the years — unless you count GCSEs as denoting someone is ‘highly trained’ and ‘qualified’. Even then, possessing an art based qualification is no guarantee you’ll be good in the field with a tape and stomper. After all, circle making isn’t like being a teacher or pilot; you don’t go study and come out with a vocational certificate.

The circle makers we speak to and have communicated with in the past come from a range of backgrounds. Many of them tend to have an artistic streak but no formal qualifications. They have made no secret that the skills of the craft are something that is learnt on the job. Not only the basic techniques, but how to deal with errors and the myriad situations that can arise whilst working in the darkness.

One made in daylight … as a commissioned advert for a barber in Swindon in 2023. Photograph by Nick Bull

Another one from Mr O’Gara. True crop circles are made during the hours of darkness. The only times when circle making may cross over into brief spells of daylight are when the finishing touches are being applied to a job in a quiet area, though this is an uncommon occurrence. After all, who wants to be seen stomping down crops at dawn by passing cars and early morning walkers? It’s just asking for blue flashing lights to appear! We’ve also read suggestions that the legendary Chilbolton and Crab Wood formations of 2001 and 2002 were made in daylight. It’s simply untrue. At both locations, the circle makers would have been visible to walkers. With the latter, they would have also been visible to motorists on Sarum Road.

The only ‘crop circles’ that are made in daylight are commissioned pieces of land art for use in advertisements or other types of promotional media.

If you’re unfamiliar with The Barge, it’s a pub located in the Wiltshire village of Honeystreet, one of three tiny, conjoined rural settlements in the parish of Alton. It was in East Field, just a few minutes’ walk from The Barge, in July 1990 that a large pictogram arrived overnight and burned itself into the public consciousness.

For twenty years or so, The Barge became the epicentre of activity for croppies. They could expect to see plenty of new crop circles in the local area each summer and mingle with other enthusiasts over a drink or campfire at The Barge. Amongst these croppies were circle makers, some of whom were embarrassingly open about their activities.

In 2011 the number of circles began to slump. Shortly after, many farmers within a 25 minute drive from Honeystreet began routinely defacing any new formations that appeared in their fields. In an increasingly hostile environment, crop circle tourists became fewer and the phenomenon began to spread further afield to the neighbouring counties of Hampshire, Dorset and Somerset. The Barge would soon find itself in difficulty, being acquired by a rather unpopular Italian restaurateur. Though the pub would eventually reopen, Alton Barnes was no longer the focal point for croppies.

As of 2025, there is no one place where croppies choose to socially congregate. The circle makers are also gone from Alton, with only the smallest quantity of them residing in the local area. If you wish to meet other croppies, The Crop Circle Visitor Centre and Exhibition at Honeystreet is a popular summer destination in the summer months.

Ah, another variation on the idea that the crop circle world is awash with money. You know … photographers are selling thousands of books, postcards, photographs, calendars and tickets to the conferences they organise. They’re making huge profits and making a living off of the public like parasites. Perhaps that was once true. But not today. It’s not happening. With crop circle numbers having tumbled over the past decade, there simply isn’t the raw material for them to work with. A cynical mind would suggest that the same photographers are taking to the fields to make crop circles but, again, it isn’t happening. Even if they were, it doesn’t automatically follow that a buyer will purchase whatever it is that is being sold. Oh, but they’re making circles and posting the videos to get advertising revenue from YouTube. Really? Show us the verifiable evidence.

This gem appeared in May 2024:

‘I know a farmer in Yorkshire.The students responsible (and others) [who make crop circles] really damage his fields and gates. Leave rubbish behind and human faeces. It’s disgusting. Some of them have been caught and arrested for vandalism.’

Crikey, where do we even start with this one?

There are times when circle making detritus has been found in formations. Forgotten markers (including poles, pegs, laminated paper and even plastic spoons), stompers and parts of surveyors tapes have been discovered by visitors. But this isn’t rubbish in the true sense. We very much doubt a circle maker would deliberately leave discarded food packaging and the like behind them. It’s not in their interests to do so. Instead, tourists may leave their own contributions behind.

As for the other claims, we have addressed the student canard elsewhere on this site. With regard to the arrests ‘for vandalism’, we have seen no evidence of this, especially as there have been so few crop circles in Yorkshire!

On to the human excrement. We are aware that circle makers have had to quickly pull down their trousers in a field, but this was typically due to illness rather than a deliberate act. Even then, the unpleasant pile-up was made well away from the circle.

Finally, the suggestion of circle makers damaging gates. For what reason would they do that? Why would they choose to hang around by a gate at a roadside and cause damage when there is a possibility they could be seen? Why would they even want to damage a gate? They’re not likely to do anything other than climb over a gate, or open it and close it. Funnily enough, we heard an accusation of gate damage whilst visiting the Rushock, Worcestershire, crop circle in 2023. A local complained the gate had been ripped off its hinges by the makers. He seemed to miss that the gate was years old, badly corroded and its hinges had long since gone. It was propped up against a fence post and joined to it by some old, weathered, orange string. The barbed wire atop it was in only slightly better condition.

All in, either the poster of this Yorkshire tale has quite the imagination, or his farmer friend has been getting it all wrong.

This one reached us courtesy of Frank Smithland, 2023’s Top of the Croppies winner. Despite having achieved no more than stomping a lap of a circle made for an advert, Smithland sees himself as quite the expert. Our view is that he’s a know-nothing-know-all. And so it came to be highlighted when Frank suggested there had been no crop circles in barley prior to May 2024 because the fields were too wet. No, Frank. Prior to May 2024 the barley crop had not been mature enough to hold a crop circle of any kind.

We were completely gobsmacked when we saw this silly piece of nonsense, accompanied by an accusation that was fittingly left by an individual from the Republic of Ireland who had already lost a libel case.

In brief, it’s no secret that crop circles drew large crowds in the late 1980s and into the 1990s. This was the phenomenon’s pinnacle in terms of popularity.

The first mention of Nick Bull we can find with regard to crop circles?

A video of a June 2015 crop circle. So, clearly, Nick Bull had absolutely nothing to do with the arrival of crowds at crop circles. He was only 25 years late.

Yes, it is Noel O’Gara yet again. Anyone who has ever visited a new crop circle during a prolonged period of rain will tell you what a miserable experience it can be. The crop is soaked and the ground may be extremely muddy, sticking to your shoes as you make your way down the tramlines. Yet the circles still appear in such weather, suggesting that it is perfectly feasible to make a crop circle in wet weather on muddy ground.

When it comes to the matter of cover for circle makers, there have been numerous crop circles that have appeared adjacent to roads or in locations where there are no hedges, trees or small hills to shield their creators from passers-by. One classic example was the formation that appeared in 2016 just over the railway track from the former RAF Defford airbase and its radio telescope in Worcestershire. There was no fence or hedge separating the field from the road, and any circle makers would have been visible to walkers or the occupants of vehicles heading uphill.

No ‘alien face’ appeared at Chilbolton Observatory. Instead, a formation resembling a human face was reported from the site in 2001. The following year, an ‘alien face’ appeared at Crab Wood. There is no evidence whatsoever, beyond a jumbled, exceptionally dubious tale from Colin Andrews, that the latter formation was commissioned by Touchstone Pictures. There is no evidence at all that the Chilbolton formation was commissioned by anyone. *Sigh* You would think that certain people would realise that saying the same bit of nonsense again and again and again doesn’t make it true. 

Crop circle genius, Cheesefoot Head, 2012. Photograph by Lucy Pringle

With Cheesefoot Head 2012, O’Gara is recycling an old fiction from Andrew Pyrka, he of Crop Circle Wisdom. The allegation is the formation was paid for by the organisers of the Boomtown Festival that appears in the neighbouring Matterley Bowl (still referred to by locals as the Punchbowl). Had Pyrka or O’Gara taken the time to contact the festival staff they would have learned the truth.

Dene Hine frequently talks a load of shite, but this was top of the pile in 2024. Given that Hine had made about five covert formations since his ‘retirement’ in 2019, none of which are any cop, it’s fair to say we are in the territory of complete delusion.

More importantly, what evidence is there to say the king is a fan of Hine’s work? Absolutely nothing. We expect Charles is more interested in the phenomenon as a whole rather than singling out any particular circle makers. You can see it now, Charles browsing this website and saying, ‘Oh look Camilla, I love that one. It has to be a Hine.’ No, we can’t picture it.

Woodborough Hill, 2000. Photograph by Steve Alexander

This beautiful crop circle was made in 2000 at a time when the Vale of Pewsey was full of crop circle tourists, both on the ground, and for a select few, in the air. Throw in the regular Army Air Corps training flights over the area back then, and any new circles were going to be found very quickly. Heaven help any circle maker dumb enough to work in the daytime (of which there were exactly zero).

Sue Jones routinely offers her off-kilter take on crop circle history. Here is another example.

Bower and Chorley worked together between sometime in the 1970s and 1992. According to Bower in an interview published in The Field Guide, this arrangement was temporarily interrupted after Chorley failed to show up for an arranged get-together at Bower’s picture framing studio one Christmas Eve. The pair didn’t speak until the following year when Bower visited Chorley to resolve the issue. By then, Bower had already resumed circle making on his own. Within Round In Circles, Jim Schnabel pinpoints Christmas 1988 as the beginning of the pair’s temporary estrangement.

So says Dene Hine.

‘Angel hair’ is a fine, sticky, fibrous substance that has been reported to have fallen from the sky during apparently paranormal events such as sightings of UFOs, alien beings and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The most famous ufological case involving ‘angel hair’ was in 1952 when the substance was apparently dropped by a cluster of unknown aerial craft.

Closer to the present day, former circle maker Rob Irving adopted the identity Harmony Blue as part of his PhD studies. In March 2011, he began posting a series of articles featuring the discovery of ‘filamentous cobweb-like material on the surface of crop circles’. So, whilst Irving may have been discussing ‘angel hair’, he most certainly wasn’t the inventor.

Crooked Soley, 2002. Photograph by Steve Alexander

We were intrigued by Noel O’Gara’s explanation as to how circle makers can make formations, such as that at Crooked Soley, with unflattened centres:

‘He planted his tripod for stability and held it firmly while his mate walked on down the tramline say 30 yards. When both were ready and steady with the string taut and at about shoulder high he walked the first circle. The tripod man then stepped back out to the tramline and they rolled out the first circle.’

At least part of what Noel is saying could be true. A maker could put their tripod in amongst the standing crop, tie the tape around it and hold it steady. However, that maker can only extend his or her arm to their natural reach. No further. As such, this method seems extremely obvious to explain away, leading one to ask if anyone would bother.

To correct two more issues: One, makers use fibreglass surveying tapes rather than string to mark out their circles. The former is less likely to snap and allows precise measurements to be made and taken. Two, we are unaware of any circle makers who use garden rollers, though it’s perfectly possible for them to do so. However, given O’Gara seems to think crop circles are made in the daytime, we find it extremely unlikely any circle maker would be lugging tripods and rollers into a field without being seen.

Photograph by Colin Andrews.

Another example of Noel O’Gara revealing his complete ignorance of crop circle history.

According to the Crop Circle Connector, the circle was discovered ‘by Busty and Rod Taylor on the 5th of August 1989 while over flying the south side of the A303 highway at Winterbourne Stoke, near Stonehenge.’

You see, back then Busty Taylor would regularly fly over the crop circle hotspots of Hampshire and Wiltshire in the hunt for new circles which he would then photograph. New discoveries were then passed on by Taylor to Colin Andrews and Pat Delgado. And no, Noel, Busty Taylor wasn’t a circle maker.

Oh Noel, Noel, Noel … Noel. 

We like publishing our list themed articles with multiples of 5 or 10 sections. But we had to stretch this one to 16 following this wonderful gem from, who else, Noel O’Gara.

It’s lovely that Noel wants to share his crop circle making knowledge, but the makers we have spoken to say there is no such thing as a ‘magic stick’. However, this is one instance where there is a snippet of truth within the myth.

Circle makers can, in some circumstances, and if the damage isn’t too large, make areas of erroneously flattened crop stand back up using their own hands. We’re aware of examples that look horrendous, whilst others … well, you wouldn’t know if you hadn’t been told.

We have also been informed that footprints can be covered up by using the flick of a stomper in a certain type of crop to rest the fallen stems upright against their neighbours. It’s not exactly a magic stick, but we see where Noel is coming from.