Blaze of GLORY
On the last Tuesday of January the streets of Lerwick in Shetland come alive with Vikings parading down the cobblestones, blazing torches held aloft, lighting the way through the dark streets. A vast longship is marched through the town before being set alight in a glorious inferno.
Welcome to the Up Helly Aa festival, the UK’s most northern fire festival and a pagan celebration in the midst of our deepest winter. It began in the 1880s, and each year draws thousands of locals and visitors alike to this remote archipelago for one day a year (the next festival will be on 29 January 2019). Shetland is so proud of its Norse connections that it’s possible to celebrate
