Edinburgh’s Hogmanay street party ensured that 2020 began with a bang in Scotland, although the coronavirus pandemic meant that it was not business as usual from March onwards.
Animals, celestial events and Prime Minister Boris Johnson feature in the best images PA news agency photographers have captured north of the border in the past 12 months.
Fireworks are launched from Edinburgh Castle at midnight during the Hogmanay New Year celebrations (Jane Barlow/PA)
A cyclist makes his way up a quiet St Vincent Street in Glasgow as the UK entered lockdown in March to help curb the spread of the coronavirus (Andrew Milligan/PA)
A Humboldt penguin walks through spraying water at Blair Drummond Safari Park, Stirling, on World Penguin Day in April (Andrew Milligan/PA)
People taking their daily exercise pass underneath the rainbow mural in Colinton Tunnel, Edinburgh, as the UK continued in lockdown in April (Jane Barlow/PA)
A giraffe pokes its head out from its enclosure at Blair Drummond Safari Park near Stirling in June (Andrew Milligan/PA)
Comet Neowise in the skies above the Forth Bridge, South Queensferry (Jane Barlow/PA)
The sky above Edinburgh Castle is lit up by My Light Shines On, an outdoor light installation for the 2020 Edinburgh International Festival in August (Jane Barlow/PA)
Stirling Castle surrounded by trees displaying their autumn colours (Jane Barlow/PA)
Karis Milligan, nine, in the light tunnel at the launch of Edinburgh Zoo’s Christmas Nights (Andrew Milligan/PA)