Spotting the Northern Lights in Orkney

Everyone in Kirkwall seems to have a Northern Lights story. Pat Stone, my ebullient guide, recalls how they once nearly blinded her while driving. I tell her I’m hoping to see them this very night – in fact, a chance of glimpsing the Northern Lights is the sole reason I’ve flown out to the Orkneys, a group of 70 islands off the north-east coast of Scotland.

Some islands reach as far north as Norway and I’m told the clear skies above make a perfect stage for viewing what Orkadians call the ‘merry dancers’. Of course, Pat warns, there’s no guarantee I’ll see them.

“Sometimes I get these Americans who write to say, ‘exactly what time will the Northern Lights start?’ I have to tell them it doesn’t quite work that way,” she says.

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