The Frontiersman

Unusual New Year's Customs Are Still Observed by Scots

Neither gaiety nor giddiness quite describe some of the odd and ancient customs that color the New Year season in Scotland.

On January 12 at Burghead, Morayshire, they preserve the pagan Yule-fires with 'The Burning of the Clavie.' The 'Clavie' is a tar-filled barrel, which is lit with a flaming brand and carried round the town. It is then rolled down a local hillside where villagers scramble for the burning embers as luck-bringers.

The men of Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, march through the streets swinging Fireballs of tarred rope and, all over Scotland, bonfires blaze, burning the Old Year out.

But you have to take the trip to the remote Shetland Islands to see what is perhaps the finest Fire Festival of all. It's called 'Uphelly-a' and takes place at the end of January in Lerwick. Here a replica of a Norse galley is towed to the pierhead complete with crew of Vikings in helmets and mail, carrying flaming torches. A gun is fired from the fort. Rockets soar from the ships in harbor and at the signal of a bugle call, four- or five-hundred spark-trails arc down the night, as the torches are tossed into the galley.