The masking of the Orford Ness lighthouse to the landward side is a flaw in the skeptic theories that has been known for close to a decade.  In April 2002 David Rudiak photoed the lighthouse showing the blocking to the west.  However the masking blocks the intense beam, it doesn't make it completely black in the blocked directions.  Light scatters from mist in front of the beam to the east so a glow can still be seen to the west even if the intense direct beam
As I proved in 2000-1 from extensive analysis of British Ordnance Survey topo maps, Col. Halt's route eastward into the farmer's field (Capel Green owned by David Boast) drops him into a low-lying depression in the terrain that runs down to the river where even the scattered light from the mist in front of the
However, at two points, at the beginning of Halt's trek and at the end of the 2-mile trek, the Orford Ness lighthouse could be seen because only at those points is the elevation is high enough, but not in the 1.9 miles of terrain depression in between (which reaches sea level at Butley river).  There was no lighthouse visible for those 1.9 miles and thus the lighthouse could not have guided them.  No skeptic and no hostile BBC film crew or anyone else has taken a camera out at night and proved that the lighthouse was visible for 2 miles by retracing Halt's route, a simple experiment that would have settled the matter.
 
Local skeptic Robert McLean checked the visibility of the lighthouse in the area in the summer of 2000 at nighttime and in the daytime.  He found there was only one small spot about 1/10th mile in size at the edge of the Redlesham forest, about 100 meters within the forest and about 126 meters out into the farmer's field, where the lighthouse was visible.  Rudiak found the same thing when he visited.  McLean also discovered that nowhere else was the lighthouse visible along Halt's 2-mile excursion following the UFO, except at the very end, at Burrow Hill, which was high enough to serve as a vantage point.

Halt's audio tape records the magnetic compass readings as he and his men pursued the red UFO and it was along 110-120 degrees magnetic.  In 1980 the magnetic bearing of the Orford Ness lighthouse was 98 degrees, thus not a match. In fact had Halt followed the lighthouse he would have run into the Butley Abbey walls and grounds barely a half mile into his 2-mile pursuit and obviously he did not.  And only by following a path towards about 110 magnetic could Halt avoid hitting either the abbey grounds on the left or another forest (Oak Wood) on the right, and only that bearing would take him to Burrow Hill.

Halt in fact reported seeing two lights, the red UFO and the white lighthouse light simultaneously, when he and his team emerged from the forest looking over the farmer's field.  And again at the farthest east when Halt and his men reached Burrow Hill after following the red UFO, at about 110 degrees magnetic, then Halt once again saw both a lighthouse (actually a lightship beacon to the south) and the UFO to the north.
 
It was at Burrow Hill where the famous incident occurred with the pencil beams hitting the ground near Halt and his men, and then the UFO retreated over Bentwaters base to the north.  Halt saw the UFO's beams probing the Bentwaters nuclear weapons storage area (WSA), and that is when the alarmed Halt radioed a report to base command at Bentwaters Command Post which in turn notified the RAF radar site Watton which logged the report (at 3:25 AM on Dec 28, 1980).  A few minutes later, at 3:30, Halt and his team retraced their steps to return