Our Guide to viewing the Northern Lights.
The experience of viewing the Northern Lights is a top bucket list item for many holidaymakers visiting Scotland. The vibrant displays of swirling coloured lights dancing across the night sky, evoke a sense of wonder and awe. If you are lucky enough to catch this natural phenomenon, the experience feels nothing short of otherworldly. Our guide will maximise your chances of catching nature’s most mesmerising light show, and with our location at the northern tip of mainland Scotland, Celtic Lodges has an impressive front row seat!
What are the Northern Lights?
The Northern Lights are a natural light display that occurs when charged particles from the sun, carried by the solar wind, collide with gases in Earth’s atmosphere. These interactions cause the gases to emit light, creating vivid patterns of different colours in the night sky.
The Northern Lights are most commonly seen in areas closer to the magnetic north pole which is why Scotland joins other places like Norway, Alaska and Canada in being prime viewing spots!
The Northern Lights are also known as the Aurora Borealis which was coined in the early 17th century by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. He combined Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn, with Boreas, the Greek name for the north wind.
When can I see the Northern Lights?
The best chance of seeing the Northern Lights is on a clear cloudless night, during autumn and winter when the skies are dark, in areas where there is little light pollution. With our streetlight-less location near John O’Groats, Celtic Lodges are well placed for a magnificent night time show!
That said, we cannot ever guarantee that you will see the Northern Lights, due to the ‘perfect storm’ of natural conditions that need to be in place. We recommend you enjoy exploring the area for a few days, giving you a few evening opportunities to spot them!
Another factor to remember is that the Sun goes through an 11 year cycle, with the Solar Maximum last occurring in 2014, so heightened geomagnetic activity and (in theory) better opportunities for Aurora spotting should occur between 2024 and 2026.
The moon also plays a part in our night skies, which may affect your ability to see the aurora to its fullest, especially during a full moon phase.
In Scotland, the months of September through to March are considered the best time to see the Northern Lights. As the nights get longer and lighter in the summer, in the north of Scotland we enjoy 18 hours of daylight, sometimes known as the ‘Simmer Dim’. The Summer Solstice on 21 June marks the longest day, and a sharp contrast to the 6 hours of daylight on the shortest day of the year on 21 December. If you’ve visited us in the summer, it’s worth returning to Celtic Lodges for a cosy autumn/winter experience!
Our tips for Aurora Spotting.
Our first tip is to download the free AuroraWatch UK app. It provides useful real-time updates on the UK’s geomagnetic activity and can send alerts to make users aware of when aurora sightings are likely. The data comes from scientists in the Space and Planetary Physics group at Lancaster University so it’s a reliable source!
Before you head outside to try viewing the northern lights, it’s key to prepare! Wrap yourself up warm in lots of layers, as autumn and winter will likely be very cold to spend prolonged time outdoors. It’s not unheard of to take out hot water bottles especially if you are trying your hand at photographing the Aurora. Gloves are essential to avoid frozen fingers!
An aurora spotting adventure at Celtic Lodges means you’re never far from popping back into the lodge for a bathroom break, to put the kettle on, or making a little midnight snack to keep energy levels high. We’re all for a midnight Aurora spotting picnic and our outdoor seating is perfect to combine both activities!
Our next top tip is to make sure you’ve got a fully charged phone or camera for taking photos, but being mere steps from the lodge also enables you to charge your phone or photographic equipment if you need to! A tripod is also a must for getting clear, non-blurry photos. Keep reading for the key settings to experiment with if you’d like to try photographing the aurora.
If you have a head torch, this is such a useful thing to use, as wearing one gives you two hands for adjusting camera settings, or if you decide to head out to another location, making sure you can see where you are going under the dark skies.
So once you’ve got yourself sorted with equipment and clothing, it’s time to… wait! Aurora spotting requires lots of patience. Your eyes will need time to adjust to the darkness of your surroundings.
Tips for taking Photos of the Northern Lights.
We’ve all seen some amazing photography shots of the Aurora, but it’s important to expect that this isn’t actually what you might see! This is because cameras process light differently to the human eye. Even when the aurora is visible, our reality could be seeing a faint glow, which is why Northern Lights photography is so popular, capturing the more pronounced colours and movement of the Aurora.
The good news is that even smartphone cameras can capture the Northern Lights. Make sure you familiarise yourself with your own settings – ensuring that you use a manual mode where you can adjust the exposure time (the longer the better), focus and the ISO which controls how much light a camera lets in during the exposure time.
The same tips apply for DSLR cameras – it’s key that you know how to operate it so practise applying the settings beforehand.
Don’t get Disappointed.. You can Stargaze too!
Despite a clear sky, the aurora still might not be visible due to all of nature’s factors at play. We recommend that you can go out and stargaze. The lack of light pollution in Scottish skies means that you can see the moon and plenty of stars!
The key thing to remember when trying to view the Northern Lights is that we are completely at the mercy of nature and while we are never guaranteed to see them, it is an awe-inspiring experience to see them!
