Thrill seekers really should head to Comrie for the Comrie Flambeaux New Years Eve festival. If the gigantic burning birch trees aren’t swarming enough, Comrie could be reeling – the city is the UK’s earthquake capital.
Some cities may have larger bonfires or torchlight parades with more torches, but few are as impressive as the burning trees of Comrie Flambeaux. However, the Hogmanay show is just one of this Scottish city’s claims of fame.
Here at the southern tip of the Highlands, they begin to prepare for Hogmanay, their New Years Eve celebration, in October. It was then that the small birch trees that will become the flaming torches of Comrie Flambeaux fell and clipped.
In November, tree trunks, which look a bit like shorter versions of cabinets thrown in traditional Highland games, are submerged in the river for several weeks. They are then wrapped in burlap cloth (up to 10 potato bags each) soaked in paraffin and tar. When they are finally lit, at midnight on New Year’s Eve, the flaming part of the torches can be up to three meters long.
From the cemetery to the river
The New Year’s Eve festivities in Comrie begin early in the evening with a children’s costume parade (British for ‘costumes’) at 6.30pm, followed by fireworks at 7.30pm.
The Comrie Flambeaux festival starts, around midnight, from a dike near the old Comrie cemetery: the church is a landmark of the city. There are at least eight burning birch torches; some years up to 12.
Torch bearers head to Melville Square in the center of the city, where hundreds of people in costumes are waiting. Then, when Big Ben in London chimes the midnight strokes, the flambeaux light up. Led by a band of pipers and followed by a costume parade, they are carried through the city by strong young men. Some say this is to cleanse Comrie of evil spirits.
When they return to the square, the flambeaux’s burning heads are thrown into a large bonfire, while prizes are awarded for the best costumes. At the end of the town’s celebrations, the remnants of the torches, along with their “load” of evil, are then carried to Dalginross Bridge and thrown into the River Earn, taking a year of evil spirits with them.
But that’s only half
If you’re heading to Comrie, just east of Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, to Hogmanay, stay for a few days in case you feel the ground shaking under your feet. Comrie sits next to the Highland Boundary Fault that runs from the Isle of Arran in the west to Stonehaven in the east.
It is an area that experiences more earthquakes than anywhere else in the UK. In fact, this area has been so active that since at least 1597, when journalist and diplomat Sir James Melville recorded an earthquake across Perthshire, scientists and onlookers have been visiting Comrie to feel it for themselves.
The term seismometer was first used here and it is likely that Professor James D. Forbes created one of the first instruments to record tremors, a pendulum suspended above a concave disk, at Comrie. In all, Forbes placed six seismometers of different sizes at Comrie for their research.
A few miles south of town, look for the little Earthquake House, in Dalrannoch. In 1988 it was restored and provided with modern monitoring equipment by the British Geological Survey. It also contains a replica of the world’s first seismometer, installed in 1874. During the restoration, large windows were installed so that you can see the new seismometer working alongside the 19th century replica of the 1840 original.
Comrie Flambeaux Essentials
- What: Eight or more huge torches parade around the village through Hogmanay.
- When: from 11:30 p.m. M., New Years Eve.
- Where: The town of Comrie in Perthshire, Scotland, about 30 kilometers west of Perth. There is bus service from Perth. Comrie, Perthshire, PH6 2DN
- Note: This is a small town and it gets very crowded for New Years Eve. Use public transportation to get there because you will never find a place to park.
- Entrance: Free
- Website
Mire a video of the Comrie Flambeaux
