Today, we know exactly what’s happening during a solar eclipse. Scotland experienced an extraordinary example of this in the 1600s – the day the light went out and became known as Mirk Monday. Just two years later, in 1654, another total solar eclipse plunged parts of northern Scotland into darkness. Two total solar eclipses over the same small country within just two years is pretty extraordinary and extremely rare. To put it into perspective, Scotland’s most recent total solar eclipse was in 1954 – and even then, the path of totality only just brushed Unst in Shetland.