By Tim Binnall
A pair of hikers exploring the Scottish Highlands could not believe their eyes when they stumbled upon an incredibly rare ice disk spinning in a river. The remarkable weather phenomenon was reportedly spotted by Dan Brown and his father as they were ascending the mountain Beinn Bhuidhe earlier this month. While taking a break to refill their water bottles, the duo looked down at the base of a waterfall and were stunned by what they saw. "Neither of us had ever seen anything like it," Brown marveled about the "perfect circle of ice slowly rotating in the water."
Given the rarity of what they were witnessing, Brown smartly decided to document the moment by snapping a few photos and capturing a video (seen above) of the ice disk. "We hadn’t encountered anyone else on the hike, it felt like we were the only people for miles around," he recalled, "so then to happen across something so serene and perfectly formed, it felt surreal." Such natural formations happen when a chunk of ice gets caught in a water current, which causes it to spin and, in the process, friction causes its sides to become smooth. Although they are considered to be a rare phenomenon, a city in Maine famously 'played host' to an enormous ice disk that formed in their river back in 2019 and then occurred again last year.