Be sure to check out the videos at the end of this post to actually see these fireballs in motion!
In Scotland New Year’s Eve is known as Hogmanay, and various Scottish villages celebrate it in different ways. In Stonehaven, a small village in the northeastern part of Scotland, the new year is welcomed in through the Stonehaven Fireball Festival – an annual tradition in which homemade balls of flammable materials are lit and swung around one’s head and body while parading down the streets. Since this event takes place at night, it makes quite a spectacular vision, with the flaming orbs circling around. Indeed, thousands of people flock to Stonehaven to watch this display.
I’m not sure of the exact history of this festival, but it does appear the custom goes back over one hundred years.
For more information about the Stonehaven Fireball Festival, check out the website at
Below are some videos of various length showing the Stonehaven Fireball Festival, so you can get an idea of this event. Notice that some of the participants are dressed in traditional Scottish kilts!
This sculpture shows the sign for "connect"...and that is what Deaf Pagan Crossroads is all about - making connections. Connections between Deafhood and Paganism, connections between the Deaf Community and the Hearing Community, connections between myself as the writer and you as the reader. I hope you will take the time to read my various posts, some of which are listed below. Welcome to the Crossroads, and I hope you make some connections here!
Awwwww … tried to access the site to watch the webcam at their midnight and it was a no go. Was able to get on there earlier today but not this evening. Site must have been flooded by people wanting to watch the webcam.
I had the same problem, MoonRose… so you’re not alone. I suspect like you said there were so many people trying to get on line to watch the webcam that the site was flooded. This does appear to be a pretty popular event – it gets over ten thousand spectators every year!
Oh well – I am sure someone will be putting up a YouTube video in a couple of days, but sure wish I could have been there to see it in person… maybe one of these years!
WOW!
What spectacular videos! Since I have a real love for fire, this really caught my interest. I would love to go to Scotland and see this festival in person myself!
Thanks for sharing such interesting knowledge with us, Ocean. It’s been very educational and a lot of fun learning more about the various customs and traditions that people around the world had and still have for celebrating the winter holidays. I just might adopt some of these ideas for my own celebrations!
Hi All,
stonehavenfireballs.co.uk did indeed crash at about 11.15pm on December the 31st, and didn’t really recover until around 2 in the morning. I’m really sorry about that. I’ve not got to the bottom of it yet, but I suspect the server was just overwhelmed by the volume of traffic. We’ll try to do better next year.
I’ve just put some links on the site to some pictures taken this year, as well as the YouTube vids that are now starting to appear.
Happy new year!
Hi Fire Chucker ~
No need to apologize, I think we all understand that your site probably did get overwhelmed by everyone wanting to watch the event via your web cam!
This does appear to be a fascinating event, and I enjoyed learning more about it… I had never even heard about the Stonehaven Fireball Festival until I started doing a little research for my Yule Series. The neat things you learn when you start blogging!
Thanks for stopping by, and a Happy New Year to you and all the Scots as well!
This was sooo cool…. maybe someday I can go there and see it in person.