Fire and Vikings

As promised, here's some photos from the torchlit procession on December 29th. It was led by a contingent of the Up-Helly-Ah Vikings, parading behind a longship. The procession started near the top of the Royal Mile, then went down the Mound and along to Calton Hill.




Some of the Vikings lining up ready to go.




Chris and me with our flaming torches. Yay, fire!




A look back at the rest of the procession behind us.




The longship burning in a huge bonfire. We threw the remains of our torches into the fire, as did most other people. The trouble was, we then had to try and pick our way back down the hill without the torchlight. Had I thought about it, I'd have brought an electric torch with me. Oh well...




Finally, here's me posing with two of the Vikings. I really wanted to run away with the axe, but the Vikings wouldn't have liked it.

It was a great evening. There's something very satisfying about marching with thousands of other people all carrying burning torches, although I really wanted to be carrying a large sword too!