Best Viewing Locations

Often surprisingly dark outside the city centre; useful base for chasing.

UNESCO site on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge; dark park within an hour of Reykjavik.

Sweden's northernmost city; near the auroral zone with wide flat tundra.

Northern Lights Cathedral town; famous for consistent aurora viewing.

Statistically the clearest skies in Scandinavia — lies in a microclimate rain shadow.

The aurora capital — fjord location, world-class viewing infrastructure.

Dramatic alpine backdrop with sheltered fjord valleys for clear skies.

Iconic jagged peaks rising from the sea; spectacular aurora reflections.

Britain's northernmost outpost — some of the darkest skies in the UK.

Europe's northernmost accessible point — deep inside the auroral oval.

Rocky coastline and mountaintops with 270° clear horizon.

Finland's northernmost municipality — directly under the auroral oval.

Popular aurora resort above the Arctic Circle; open fell landscape.

Gateway to Finnish Lapland; Arctic Circle sky with good transport links.

Icebergs floating under the aurora — one of the world's most photogenic spots.

North Iceland's capital with easy access to aurora-optimal fjord darkness.

Black-sand beach with basalt sea stacks — dramatic aurora backdrop.

Ancient landscape with minimal light pollution and wide open skies.

The UK mainland's most northerly point — outstanding northern horizon.

Remote Atlantic headland; one of the least light-polluted mainland spots.

Gold-tier Dark Sky Park — high plateau, crisp Highland air.

Scotland's original Gold-tier Dark Sky Park; good southern coverage too.

England's darkest county; Kielder Observatory is based here.

Dark skies above Ennerdale and Wastwater — clear of city glow with high fell horizon.

Dark Sky Discovery site; high limestone plateau with excellent northern views.

Dark Sky Discovery site with unobstructed northern horizon from the moors.

AONB with rolling moors away from Preston and Blackburn glow — good low-horizon views.

Crown dependency in the Irish Sea with Gold-tier Dark Sky Island status — surrounded by dark water.

Rolling hills between Edinburgh and Northumberland — accessible dark skies without the Highland drive.

Kinder Scout and Bleaklow give high exposed moorland — the best Midlands viewing spot during strong events.

AONB forest dark sky site in Staffordshire — popular with Midlands aurora chasers.

Long Mynd and Stiperstones ridgelines give clear west and north horizons away from city light.

Open reservoir landscape in England's smallest county — surprisingly dark eastern Midlands site.

AONB chalk hills; flat agricultural land keeps horizons wide and skies dark.

Flat wetland landscape with near-zero obstruction — wide north horizon ideal for low aurora.

Dark sky forest heathland on the Norfolk/Suffolk border; one of England's darkest lowland areas.

Gold-tier Dark Sky Reserve — clear mountain nights away from coastal haze.

Dark Sky Discovery site on the Atlantic coast — minimal eastward glow, open north horizon.

International Dark Sky Reserve in the heart of South Wales.

Gold-tier Dark Sky Park — highest ground in southern England with panoramic sky.

Gold-tier Dark Sky Reserve; coastal ridge gives clear northern horizon over the Bristol Channel.

Granite upland in Cornwall — isolated from city glow and surprisingly dark for southern England.

North-facing Atlantic coastline with spectacular basalt cliffs and minimal light pollution.

AONB upland plateau in County Tyrone — one of Northern Ireland's darkest areas.

Dark Sky Discovery sites along the chalk ridge — during Hp30 7+ aurora reaches this far south.

Ancient woodland with several dark clearings away from Southampton and Bournemouth.