Great Hilltop Viewpoints for Bonfire Night

© david morse

Instead of milling with the crowds at your local Guy Fawkes night firework display, why not overlook the pyrotechnics in peace and quiet from a strategic nearby hilltop? Here are a few suggestions.

Fireworks and hills  © david morse
Fireworks and hills
© david morse, Apr 2013

The Abergavenny firework display in Belgrave Park starts at 6pm. Get a head start and watch the whizz-bangs from far above on either of these big hills flanking the town. If the main summit of Sugar Loaf seems too distant, stop short on one of its lower shoulders.

Windermere's display kicks off at 6:30pm. Stay reasonably close to the action on one of the popular little viewpoints of Orrest Head or Brant Fell, or go for the long view over the lake from the wooded Wainwright of Claife Heights. Here it might be worth scouting out a tree-free line of sight beforehand.

This unusual craggy seaside mini-summit offers a superb seagull's-eye view of Llandudno. The fireworks at the pier at 7:30pm would be best seen from the Mynydd Isaf end of the Orme.

Guy Fawkes night celebrations do not get wilder, crazier nor more unapologetically traditional than in the Sussex town of Lewes, where various local bonfire societies vie to put on the best show. Expect crowds of revellers, pyromaniac processions and even burning effigies. There are more conventional overhead fireworks too, so if partying in the streets til the early hours doesn't appeal then why not watch it all from a safe distance up on the South Downs at Cliffe Hill?

Fireworks start here at 7:30pm, and while you could join the throngs at the display on Castle Hill, the more distant eminences to the west of the town would make a much quieter alternative.

  • No match for crag id:"Arthur's Seat"​ - Edinburgh

We've saved the best for last. If you want to ooh and ahh at fireworks from a summit viewpoint then perhaps nowhere beats Edinburgh's urban mini mountain. Head up after dark (it's a 20 minute stumble to the top) and the city is laid at your feet. Below you, fireworks will be popping off at all points of the compass, from Edinburgh's back yards to the tiny star-bursts of municipal displays on the distant Fife coast. Some bright spark usually even manages to set half the hillside alight with rockets. The big guns come out at 7:30pm, when the Meadowbank Stadium display booms into life.



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