SECRET military experiments, messages from aliens, imprints of flying saucers or even mating hedgehogs. These are just some of the more wacky explanations for the strange circles spotted each year in fields across Dorset and .

The summer saw an unusually high number including a compass-shaped crop circle that mysteriously appeared overnight in a field next to Hinton Admiral railway station.

Interest in crop circles nose-dived in the 1990s after elderly civil servants Doug and Dave claimed they had created them using planks.

However conspiracy theorists say their claims were part of a deliberate disinformation campaign orchestrated by MI5 to conceal the reality of the British government’s contact with aliens.

And, interestingly, the circles have continued to appear since the death of one of the pair.

The circles often depict mathematical symbols and formulae including the fibonacci sequence (which Dan Brown fans will have a passing acquaintance with as it features in The Da Vinci Code).

Many of those who visit the circles report that they have healing properties, while others say credit cards have been wiped and their wristwatches lose time.

Dave Shead of Dorset Earth Mysteries Group, believes the Hinton Admiral Circle to be fake. He said: “Two or three people could have done it in an hour to two.

“They probably just trampled it down with planks, using ropes to get the distances correct.

“When you go in to a genuine circle, radios go crazy and mobile phones don’t work. My mobile phone was working right in the middle of it.”

Former Christchurch mayor and paranormal enthusiast Michael Hodges said crop circles should be taken more seriously by the government and the scientific world.

“There are some known to have been formed in a couple of minutes. Quicker than a person could do it. It seems as if some intelligence is creating shapes in crops,” he added.

Another theory’s claims has it that aliens living light years away from the earth might be trying to communicate with us telepathically through the circles.

Film-maker Daniel Saunders from Christchurch, who has made a short film about the Hinton Admiral crop circle (see below), said he believes that some have a supernatural explanation.

Michael Jackson-inspired crop circle shenanigans

He said: “With the scale and precision of the Hinton circle I think it has to be something created by something with an aerial view. It’s too complex and detailed.”

Crop circle author Karen Alexander, 39, who runs a website with husband Steve, 50, said they have “an open mind” about what causes crop circles.

She said: “I have been in crop circles that I’ve considered to be genuine with no effects on mobile phones or cameras. I try not to get into whether they’re real or not real.

“There’s no hard or fast evidence to say any of it is down to [aliens].

“I think whatever it turns out to be, it’s a fascinating chapter in human history,” she said.