The Loony Dook is an annual event held on New Year's Day in which people dive into the freezing waters of the Firth of Forth at South Queensferry (north of Edinburgh, Scotland), often in fancy dress. [1]
The Loony Dook is an annual event held on New Year's Day in which people dive into the freezing waters of the Firth of Forth at South Queensferry (north of Edinburgh, Scotland), often in fancy dress. [1]
On New Year's Day, typically in the morning (but times vary according to tides), [2] Many dookers first take part in the Dookers' Fancy Dress Parade, leading from the Hawes car park to the old mole. [3] Spectators cheer on the participants at various vantage points.
The Dookers are then greeted by bagpipe pipers [4] and warmed with bowls of "energising porridge", prior to plunging themselves into the freezing Firth of Forth. [5]
The event was conceived in 1986 as a joking suggestion by three locals for a New Year's Day hangover cure. [6] The following year, it was decided to repeat the event for charity.
After a few years of only local significance, the event gradually grew in the 1990s, both in popularity and number of participants. The growth accelerated after the event began to be mentioned in the official Edinburgh Hogmanay publicity material and got a boost when the Millennium edition was broadcast live by the BBC. [7]
Originally organised by locals and starting from the Moorings pub (now the Inchcolm), factors such as increased crowds, safety issues and popularity necessitated a different handling. As a consequence, the events from 2009 onwards were professionally handled by event managers Unique Events. [8] Being the organisers of the Edinburgh Hogmanay Festival, they included the Loony Dook into the latter from 2011. [9] In the same year a registration fee was introduced to cover the cost of organisation and stewarding. The fee of originally £6 was raised to £10 in 2016. [10] This went up to £12 in 2020, attracting criticism from the event's founders, who described it as a "damned disgrace". [11] In 2021 and 2022 the event did not take place, due to Covid, and in 2023 and 2024 the event reverted to local control, with no entry fee but a voluntary charity donation.
The proceeds benefit RNLI Queensferry and local charities. [12]
The Loony Dook received sponsorship from the tour company Haggis Adventures (from 2011) [13] and then from the porridge company Stoats.
Up to 2016, three of the original Dookers, James MacKenzie, Iain 'Rambo' Armstrong and Kenny Ross, have the distinction of taking part in every Loony Dook and the trio wore specially designed T-shirts with '30 yrs' to celebrate the achievement. [14]
The event has inspired similar annual New Year's day Loony Dooks, such as in North Berwick and Dunbar in East Lothian, Portobello in Edinburgh, St Andrews, Dalgety Bay and Kirkcaldy in Fife and Coldingham Sands in Berwickshire all of which are on the south east coast of Scotland. [15] [16]
Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the old year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year in the Scottish manner. It is normally followed by further celebration on the morning of New Year's Day and, in some cases, 2 January—a Scottish bank holiday. In a few contexts, the word Hogmanay is used more loosely to describe the entire period consisting of the last few days of the old year and the first few days of the new year. For instance, not all events held under the banner of Edinburgh's Hogmanay take place on 31 December.
The Firth of Forth is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife to its north and Lothian to its south.
The Forth Road Bridge is a suspension bridge in east central Scotland. The bridge opened in 1964 and at the time was the longest suspension bridge in the world outside the United States. The bridge spans the Firth of Forth, connecting Edinburgh, at South Queensferry, to Fife, at North Queensferry. It replaced a centuries-old ferry service to carry vehicular traffic, cyclists and pedestrians across the Forth; railway crossings are made by the nearby Forth Bridge, opened in 1890.
Queensferry, also called South Queensferry or simply "The Ferry", is a town to the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. Traditionally a royal burgh of West Lothian, it is now administered by the City of Edinburgh Council. It lies ten miles to the north-west of Edinburgh city centre, on the shore of the Firth of Forth between the Forth Bridge, Forth Road Bridge and the Queensferry Crossing.
Broughty Ferry is a suburb of Dundee, in Scotland. It is situated four miles east of the city centre on the north bank of the Firth of Tay. The area was a separate burgh from 1864 until 1913, when it was incorporated into Dundee. Historically it is within the County of Angus.
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Dalmeny railway station is a railway station serving the towns of Dalmeny and South Queensferry, about 8 miles (13 km) west of Edinburgh city centre. It is on the Fife Circle Line, located just south of the Forth Bridge.
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Hogmanay is a New Year's Eve television special broadcast by BBC One Scotland, covering Scotland's Hogmanay festivities for New Year's Eve.
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Edinburgh's Hogmanay are the celebrations and observance of Hogmanay—the Scottish celebration of the New Year—held in the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh. The fireworks display at Edinburgh Castle are broadcast on television in Scotland, such as BBC Scotland's Hogmanay, as well as Hogmanay celebration broadcasts by STV.
The Queensferry Crossing is a road bridge in Scotland. It was built alongside the existing Forth Road Bridge and the Forth Bridge. It carries the M90 motorway across the Firth of Forth between Edinburgh, at South Queensferry, and Fife, at North Queensferry.
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Events from the year 2018 in Scotland.
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