The Northern Lights lit up the skies with bright pink hues visible on Thursday evening and Friday morning.

Photos of the dazzling natural phenomenon, also known as aurora borealis, were captured across Scotland.

The Met Office said relatively clear skies were forecast for much of the UK, creating a “decent chance of visibility”.

A spokesman for the forecaster said there had been “more space weather events in recent months”, including the Northern Lights, because the sun was nearing the peak of its solar cycle.

Met Office spokesman Stephen Dixon said there was a chance of some visible auroras across parts of the UK on Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday.

The auroras on Earth, which are most commonly seen over high polar latitudes but can spread south, are chiefly influenced by geomagnetic storms which originate from activity on the Sun.

The sun works on a cycle of around 11 years called the solar cycle – with peak sunspot activity on the surface of the Sun referred to as solar maximum.

Sunspots give the potential for Earth-directed releases of large bursts of energy, called coronal mass ejections, which can lead to aurora visibility.

Aurora displays occur when charged particles collide with gases in the Earth’s atmosphere around the magnetic poles.

As they collide, light is emitted at various wavelengths, creating colourful displays in the sky.