THE LONG SHORT & OF IT…
It’s just after eight o’clock in the morning of 21 December and we are standing shivering at the end of a pier beneath the Forth rail bridge, waiting for the sun to appear.
Members of the local lifeboat crew walk past carrying a human torso. Closer inspection thankfully reveals it to be a plastic one for use in firstaid demonstrations.
“Where will the sun come up?” I ask one of them.
“Over there,” comes the reply, pointing to a dark promontory jutting out into the river.
The sky is already starting to turn a dull amber glow in that direction. It’s time to clip in. Sunrise here in South Queensferry will officially be at 8.42am. Our plan is to race the celestial orb across Scotland and arrive in Helensburgh on the west coast before it sets at 3.46pm. We are riding from sunrise to sunset on the shortest day of the year: what could possibly go wrong?
If anything does go wrong, at least we’re in good company. Dr Robin Hoyle is one of the bosses at Glasgow Science Centre and a trained member of
