Runners fired up for Sport Relief

The field gun was fired to start the Sport Relief mile

A One O'Clock Gun was fired in Edinburgh to start the city's Sport Relief mile.

A Royal Navy team from HMS Caledonia pulled the tonne-and-a-half field gun for a mile before firing it at the traditional time, to start the run.

The One O'Clock Gun has been fired by the Army on Monday to Saturday from Edinburgh Castle since 1861 but it is never fired on a Sunday.

Thousands of people in Scotland will run a mile for the BBC charity appeal.

In Edinburgh, the Rosyth-based HMS Caledonia team ran ahead of the other participants and in reverse - beginning at the finish line and finishing at the start.

Before the event, HMS Caledonia's Commanding Officer, Commander Peter Adams, said: "We are creating a little bit of history with the firing of a One O'clock Gun on a Sunday - but then, in a sense, it is only right and fitting.

"In 1861, Scotsman Robert Wauchope, a captain in the Royal Navy, invented the time ball, which can still be seen today on top of Nelson's Monument on Calton Hill. It was designed to give sailors on the Firth of Forth a reliable time signal.

"But because they couldn't always rely on the weather allowing them to see the ball, a cannon was fired at the same time - and a tradition that is now known around the world was born."