History
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| This image is from the late 1980s |
The event was conceived over a casual
conversation at the bar of The Moorings during the Christmas break
in 1986 when Andy Kerr said to his pal Jim Kilcullen, “How about
doing something different to celebrate the New Year?” Jim
replied, “Ach, let’s jump in the
From that very small beginning, with only
a handful of “dookers”, we now welcome over 1000 participants and
approaching 4000 spectators from literally all over the world.
In addition we have raised, mainly through donations and
sponsorship, over £80,000 for local charities, not to mention the
hundreds of thousands which many have raised and continue to raise
for their own particular charities.
As for the actual taking part, as one who
has been daft enough to have done so on a couple of occasions, it is
quite a shock to the system, hitting the freezing waters of the
Forth but, believe it or not, it’s much worse coming out into the
freezing cold air, although the fantastic camaraderie of people from
places like South Africa, Australia, Canada, South America, most
European countries, USA, Malaysia, etc., makes it all so much easier
to bear.
The great attraction of the event is the
fun of the occasion, people dress in outrageous costumes:
we’ve had fairies, footballers, nurses and clowns. We even had a guy
in a full three piece suit, shirt, tie, shoes, the lot! And in
2010, we had a couple who immediately following their dook were
married on Queensferry High Street. The parade with our pipers
and our Town Crier prior to the dook is also an important and
enjoyable spectacle for the day, as was seen on world-wide
television at the Millennium.
Due to the size of the event and the huge numbers of participants and spectators who descend on Queensferry nowadays, the Loony Dook is now an official Edinburgh’s Hogmanay event with the management and organisation looked after by Unique Events on behalf of the City of Edinburgh Council with David Steel acting as local liaison.
We also currently have a main sponsor, Scottish specialist tour company Haggis Adventures.
Suggestions and comments are welcome,
please contact David at
david@theloonydook.co.uk
Submitted by David M. Steel, October
2011.
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