Night sky phenomenon near Inverness - craft or astronomical? Please help identify

I'm posting this on behalf of my uncle who doesn't use computers much. This happened last Friday night (7th December, approximately 22:45 GMT) near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands.

He was outside his cottage having a smoke when he noticed something unusual in the sky - described it as a 'pattern of lights moving slower than any plane, and the pattern wasn't like anything he'd seen before.' He watched it for about 8 minutes. It moved roughly north to south, made no sound, had what he described as a 'deliberate' movement pattern rather than anything erratic or fluttering.

He took two photos on his mobile (old Samsung, not great quality) but the lights are barely visible in the images. Weather was clear, no clouds, good visibility. He's certain it wasn't a plane, drone, or satellite.

Questions: Has anyone else spotted anything similar in the Highlands recently? Could this be astronomical? He's genuinely shaken and wants to know what he saw.

First instinct: could be starlink satellites. They sometimes appear as a chain of lights moving across the sky, relatively slowly, no sound. Visible especially in the Highlands where there's less light pollution. But the fact he saw a 'pattern' rather than a chain changes things slightly. If the lights were actually connected or forming a specific arrangement, that's more interesting.

Ask him if the lights were in a straight line (Starlink) or if they were scattered/clustered. That information would be helpful.

Inverness area gets a lot of unusual sky activity - partly because of the geography (valleys amplify sound differently), partly because there's less electromagnetic interference. If this was genuinely unusual, it's worth documenting properly. Motion, colour, speed, distance from horizon, all of it.

Get the photos uploaded somewhere and maybe we can enhance them? Phone cameras are rubbish in low light but there might be something recoverable.

It moved roughly north to south, made no sound, had what he described as a 'deliberate' movement pattern

That deliberate movement is the interesting bit. Natural phenomena and human aircraft tend to have predictable patterns. Something that moves with apparent purpose is worth taking seriously. Could still be something mundane, but at least it's worth investigating properly rather than dismissing.

Get him to contact the local airport (Inverness or even further afield) and ask if they logged anything unusual on their radar that night. Civilian air traffic has to be logged. If nothing showed up on radar and he definitely saw something, that's significant data. Probably won't help identify it, but it eliminates one possibility.

Scottish Highlands get Starlink regularly - I'm fairly sure I saw the same thing last month near Loch Ness. They're genuinely eerie if you're not expecting them because the formation looks alien (no pun intended). But the fact he found it strange is worth taking seriously. Could be something else entirely. Post the photos if you can, even blurry ones might help.