New Years Day, Stonehaven
Introduction
The photograph on this page of New Years Day, Stonehaven by Carol Walker as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
New Years Day, Stonehaven
Image: © Carol Walker Taken: 1 Jan 2007
Here is the evidence of the previous nights celebrations.The'fireball'is a cage of wire netting about two feet in circumference, packed with all sorts of flammable material and soaked in paraffin. It is attached to a five foot length of wire and can weigh up to twenty pounds. Swinging it around your head is no mean feat. The display parades through the streets and then the 'fireballs' are tossed into the sea.These unusual celebrations seem to be linked to an old 19th century fishermans festival, and maybe even pagan festivals before that.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
56.960662
Longitude
-2.202568