Local area Fishing boats moored in Burgled harbour Moray North East Scotland. SCO 10,092.
A fire festival called the Burning of the Clavie is held on 11 January each year, except when the 11th is a Sunday, in which case it takes place on the 10th. The event starts when the Clavie is lit on Granary Street at 18:00 and normally ends by 19:30. In 1599 the Parliament of Scotland passed a law which, while retaining the Julian calendar, provided that, beginning in 1600, the first day of the year would be 1 January. In 1752 Great Britain, including Scotland, adopted the Gregorian calendar, removing 11 days from the calendar by stipulating that the day following 2 September would be not 3 September but 14 September. The day that would have been New Year's Day in the old calendar now fell on 12 January of the new calendar. The Burning of the Clavie continues to be celebrated on the former New Year's Eve—that is, in the new calendar, on 11 January. This vitrified fort lies on top of a headland which commands extensive views of the Moray Firth. Originally believed to be Ptolemy's Castra Alata, later 'Ptoroton' and the 'Torffness' of the Orkneyinga Saga, it is now known to be of Pictish origin and is thought to be the oldest Pictish fort. It encloses 3 hectares and is three times as large as any other fort of the same period in Scotland. It was defended on the landward side by three banks and ditches which were destroyed during the creation of the harbour and modern village; their age is therefore uncertain. Six striking carved slabs known as the "Burghead Bulls" were discovered during excavations. The Burghead Well, which lies within the perimeter of the promontory fort, was discovered in 1809. It consists of a flight of stone steps leading down to a chamber containing a tank fed by springs. There is a frieze in the upper walls, a pedestal in the southeast corner and a sunken basin in the northwest corner.
Size: 6064px × 4035px
Location: Burghead, Morayshire. Grampian Region. Scotland. UK.
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., 000, 18th, 3, 8, 85, 1805, 1809, added, annum, antiquity, attributed, barley, beach, built, bulls, bulls., burghead, burning, carved, centre, century, chambered, clavie, complete, considerable, deepest, defences, depicting, destroying, discovered, elgin., existed, festival, firth, fishing, fort, fort., fortriu, general, harbour, harbours, hill, historic, history, important, industry, kingdom, kings, lived, major, malting, map, meaning, miles, moray, north, north-west, north-westward, peninsula, pictish, planned, present, preserve, process, producing, projects, romans, romans., roof, roy’, safest, scotland, sea, shows, sides., site, slabs, small, telford, tonnes, tourism, town, trail, views, vikings, village, walls, warehouses, whiskey, wrongly
