A KEEN walker was "amazed" to see this rare weather phenomenon called a Brocken spectre on New Year's Day.

Neil Capstick reached the summit of Bowfell, in the Langdale Valley, at 10.45am. There, at 902 metres (2,940 feet) he was greeted by the sight of his own giant shadow cast onto the cloud, in the middle of a circular rainbow.

"It was spectacular to see," said the 52-year-old of the fleeting moment, which he shot on his phone's camera.

Neil, who has a weekend home in Hawkshead, was walking with his wife Sarah, and it was his mother-in-law who later identified the Brocken spectre from the photograph. "I'd never even heard of it," said Neil, managing director of haircare company Neäl & Wølf. "It was just amazing."

According to the Met Office, the Brocken spectre is named after the German mountain on which it was first observed.