Northern Lights Scotland: Edinburgh man spots 'spectacular' Aurora Borealis in skies over East Lothian beach

An Edinburgh blogger spotted the aurora borealis in skies above a local beach on Sunday night, April 23.

Shaun Alexander, who runs the Dreaming of Scotland blog, got a glimpse of the natural light show, which was visible in Edinburgh and the Lothians last night. Shaun was driving home from Edinburgh Airport, when he got an alert from a northern lights app, notifying him of solar activity. He said: "I wasn't expecting to see them at all - firstly because with the light skies appearing in late April, it's usually too light to see the northern lights, and also with heavy cloud cover it seemed like a long shot."

Despite the slim chances of spotting the rare light show, Shaun and his wife headed to Longniddry Beach in East Lothian to try and spot the Northern Lights. The blogger said: “We waited for 30 minutes with nothing but thick clouds - then from nowhere, the skies cleared and we were treated to this spectacular show!” The couple managed to snap some pictures of the gorgeous display of purple and green lights. He added: “It was one of the best I've ever seen in Scotland. And then we even saw what appeared to be a 'face' of a woman. It was a truly remarkable sight - maybe this is what they mean by 'lady' aurora".

The aurora borealis is a natural light display, which occurs when charged particles collide with the Earth's upper atmosphere at a very high speed, creating patterns of bright colourful lights in the sky. Usually, the Northern Lights are only visible in countries close to the centre of the Arctic Circle, but occasionally the aurora can be seen further south – in Scotland, North Ireland and North England. However, the lights were seen as far South as Cornwall on Sunday night. Earlier this year, in February, dozens of locals in Edinburgh and the Lothians spotted one of the brightest aurora borealis displays in years, as green, pink and purple hues lit up the night sky.