Incredibly rare ‘ice disk’ phenomenon spotted by hikers in Scottish Highlands
A hiker was able to capture an incredibly rare ice disk while on a mountain walk in the Scottish Highlands.
Dan Brown, 32, from Dunoon, was hiking up Beinn Bhuidhe when he came across the circular ice sheet.
Ice disks are formed from the river’s current and vortex beneath the frozen surface, which can cause spinning.
He said: ‘I was hiking Beinn Bhuidhe, a Munro at the head of Loch Fyne, with my father.
‘Visibility wasn’t great, but after about an hour-and-a-half the snow stopped and cloud cover started to clear.
‘We took a break to fill our water bottles from the burn by the track – that’s when we noticed the ice disk slowly spinning at the foot of a small waterfall.’
Both Dan and his dad had never seen or experienced an ice disk in the flesh, and were taken aback.
He added: ‘Neither of us had ever seen anything like it, a perfect circle of ice slowly rotating in the water, so we thought it must be a rare occurrence and took some photographs and videos.
‘We hadn’t encountered anyone else on the hike, it felt like we were the only people for miles around.
‘So then to happen across something so serene and perfectly formed, it felt surreal.’
The Met Office lists ice disks as, ‘a rare phenomenon that tends to occur in very cold oceans and lakes’.
‘They are most frequently seen in the Baltic Sea and around Antarctica but also form relatively frequently on the Great Lakes of the United States and Canada,’ the forecaster added.
The UK’s bitter cold snap also saw a rare phenomenon on the River Tyne in Hexham, Northumbria.
Paddleboarders Paul Sundin and Tim Frater came across the stunning scene of ice pancakes forming across the water on Monday following a night of sub-zero temperatures.
They form when foam on a river begins to freeze and join together, and is sucked into a swirling current of water forming the circular shape.
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