Despite an impending thunderstorm, hundreds of heavily disguised torchbearers gathered on a remote Scottish island to celebrate an ancient Viking fire festival.
They held flaming torches aloft as they marched through the town of Lerwick in the Shetland Islands.
The procession culminated in the burning of a Viking-style galley.
People come from all over the world to witness this spectacle. The spectacle began in the 1880s to mark the end of the Yule season (a pre-Reformation calendar that coincided with the Catholic calendar) and celebrate Scotland’s Viking heritage.
The construction of the galley and the production of over 1,000 torches were all done by volunteers.