The second-generation Viking leading Edinburgh torchlight procession of 15,000 flames

A second-generation Viking set to lead his 40-strong squad through Edinburgh before Hogmanay has told how the group hand-knitted 60,000 pieces of chainmail together to make their costumes.

Michael Farmer, Guizer Jarl of the Shetland Vikings who will parade through the capital on December 29, has taken part in the South Mainland Up Helly Aa festival on Shetland since the age of four, when he joined his father in the procession.

Now, he is ready to step up and lead the Torchlight Procession in Edinburgh, which will bring together 15,000 torchbearers, drummers, fire performers and street theatre in an event that has become a mainstay of the capital’s Hogmanay celebrations.

Mr Farmer, now 36, said although he had regularly been in a squad and had been in the Jarl squad as a Viking five times, at the ages of four, nine, 18 and 29, he had never taken part in the Edinburgh procession.

“I think it's going to be a lot to take in,” he said. “We’ve been looking at videos from previous years, and it's just overwhelming, really. So we're all really excited about it.

“Some of the squad reckon it’s going to be better than Up Helly Aa, but we’ll see about that.”

Michael Farmer will lead the Up Helly Aa squad at this year's Torchlit Procession in Edinburgh on December 29. | Contributed

Mr Farmer said he and his group of 41 adults and six children had spent months creating the Viking costumes last year, ahead of the area’s Up Helly Aa festival in March. Shields and weapons have been crafted from oak and torches created.

A joiner by trade, he found his professional skills came in useful.

He estimates they handknitted 60,000 individual loose links of chainmail together. The group met up to four nights a week and then at weekends to finish the costumes as the festival approached.

Mr Farmer said: “We design the suits, and then we spend all winter making the suits,” he said. “We made everything from scratch, apart from the boots and the cloaks, but we had a hand in designing them. A lot of it wasn’t things we’d done before, working with the leather and chainmail, that was an experience.

“I wouldn't like to guess how many metres of chainmail we made.”

The groups are then invited to perform at various events throughout Shetland.

“The first time anybody sees them is at the Up Helly Aa festival,” he said. “Putting on the suits, then having a glass of port at 6am makes you feel like a Viking.”

He remembers his first Jarl squad experience as a toddler as being “very cold”.

“I can't remember much else, because it's so long ago,” he said. “I've been in a few Jarl squads since the one when I was four and it is just a blast.

“We were just a group of guys who got together and then over the years I got more involved.”

He also included his own daughter, Libby, 3 - whose favourite song is Helly Aa - and three other young family members as Viking princesses in the Shetland festival last March.

At the culmination of the festival, the Jarl squad sets fire to a wooden galley ship. Mr Farmer opted to do so on the beach in his home village of Cunningsburgh , where his parents still live.

“Standing in the galley with 500 torches circling you is something I'll never forget,” he said. “That was one of the best experiences of my life.”

On December 29, the Up Helly Aa squad will lead the Torchlight Procession from from the Meadows to Castle Terrace.