January 2, 2010
Source: The Press and Journal
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1546182?UserKey=
Crowds of revellers turned out to watch the annual Comrie Flambeaux Procession in Perthshire on New Year’s Day.
The flambeaux were lit as the bells tolled midnight and then paraded through the village in an ancient pagan tradition.
Comrie Pipe Band and villagers donning fancy dress followed the torchlight procession until the crowd reassembled at Melville Square.
Some of the torches, made of long thick birch poles soaked in the River Earn for six weeks before the event, with tarred rags tightly bound to the tops, were then thrown on to a bonfire, which the crowd danced around.