Issue Nine · Page 58Autumn and Winter 2024–25 · page 58Chasing the Night.
With some of Europe’s darkest nights, Scotland shows the Aurora Borealis at its best. But the clarity of the stars makes night-sky viewing essential even when the Aurora isn’t forecast, writes Emily Rose Mawson, as she shares five of Scotland’s richest skies.
WordsEmily Rose MawsonPhotographySimon Hird
Photograph · Simon Hird
In the hours after the Aurora Borealis lit up Scotland’s skies like a crayon-bright watercolour in May 2024, social media became a digital Northern Lights as flurries of accounts posted colourful captures of the natural phenomenon. For those who slept through, the majesty of the event was tangible – but if missed, there is also next time.
Known as ‘Na Fir-chlis’ in Gaelic, literally meaning ‘the nimble men’, the Aurora is symptomatic of the electromagnetic coupling between the Earth and the Sun, explains Professor Jim Wild from the Physics Department at Lancaster University, which launched the AuroraWatchUK app.
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Design Disrupters: Timorous Beasties.
As they prepare to open their new Edinburgh showroom, designers Paul Simmons and Alistair McAuley tell Hidden Scotland how their Glasgow-based studio Timorous Beasties ended up with a reputation as the enfant terrible of the interior design world.
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