Great Balls of Fire

While most places are happy to ring in the new year with fireworks and Champagne, some opt to go a wee bit further. The 17th century town of Stonehaven in Scotland celebrates Hogmanay (Gaelic for “a new morning”) with a pre-Christian ceremony that involves burly fishermen swinging fireballs over their heads to ward off evil spirits.


Stonehaven’s Fireballs Festival can be described as a hedonistic brew of ancient customs, Celtic revelry and fatalistic behaviour. It is among the most unique celebrations of Hogmanay in the country, and to witness it is to live out a scene from Dante’s Inferno.

With a pipe band on display, crowds line the high street as a stream of “swingers” process towards the Flemish style harbour, swinging great balls of fire (which are made of lobster creels wrapped in chicken wire and stuffed with oily waste). Dressed in traditional Scottish attire, the older swingers treat the ceremony as a show of strength, filling the cold sea air with flames and a trail of light. Upon arrival at the harbor, the fireballs are extinguished in the North Sea, having symbolically cleansed the town of evil for another year. The flaming orbs also represent the sun, reminding revellers that the days won’t always grow cold and dark at 4pm. The Stonehaven Fireballs offers viewers optimism for the year ahead, and most certainly a full night’s worth of entertainment.

Visitors to Stonehaven should check in at the Malmaison Hotel in Aberdeen (just fifteen miles north). Its dark and swanky vibe will no doubt set the mood for the festival.

Daniel Agnew is an observational writer, blogger and feature columnist originally from southern Aberdeenshire, now living in South Hackney, London. Photo: Gordon Brown