Replica Viking ship set ablaze to mark ‘Up Helly Aa’

STORY: According to the Shetland Islands Council, the annual festival in Lerwick includes around 1,000 torch bearers marching with accompanying song and dance while a Viking ship, or galley, is dragged to a burning site.Once there, the torch bearers hurl their torches into the vessel and watch it burn as the crowd sings.The tradition follows more that 140 years of an organised festival mixing together elements that go back 12 centuries to the time of Vikings.