THESE fantastic pictures of the Northern Lights were taken in Cumbria over the weekend.

The amazing photographers were taken by Mark McNeill, the owner of HAPPY DAYS PHOTOGRAPHY based in Preston.

Mr McNeil took the pictures from Blencartha and the Castlerigg Circle near Keswick.

An aurora is a natural light display in the sky, predominantly seen in the high latitude regions.

Auroras are produced when the magnetosphere is sufficiently disturbed by the solar wind that the trajectories of charged particles in both solar wind and magnetospheric plasma, mainly in the form of electrons and protons, precipitate them into the upper atmosphere, where their energy is lost.