Platinum Jubilee: Thousands of beacons to honour the Queen

More than 2,800 Platinum Jubilee beacons will be lit across the globe in honour of the Queen's 70-year reign.

It's part of the celebrations for the Platinum Jubilee.

The network of flaming tributes will stretch throughout the UK, with beacons at historic sites including the Tower of London, Windsor Great Park, Hillsborough Castle, Lambeth Palace and the Queen's estates of Sandringham and Balmoral.

The first beacons on 2 June - the start of the long Jubilee weekend - are due to be set ablaze thousands of miles away in Tonga and Samoa in the South Pacific, and the final one in the central American country of Belize in the Caribbean.

The principal beacon at Buckingham Palace - a 21-metre tall Tree of Trees sculpture for the Queen's Green Canopy initiative - will be lit by a senior royal, who has yet to be revealed, late on the Thursday evening.

This is a picture of the beacon at Edinburgh Castle in Scotland that was lit as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012

Nine central London bridges across the River Thames will be lit up to form the world's longest public artwork, entitled Illuminated River, with a celebratory sequence of evolving colour and light.

Several English cathedrals - Durham, Ely, Lichfield, Peterborough and Rochester - will be lighting up the night sky red, white and blue, while London's BT Tower will also be celebrating the occasion.

Both the Scouts and Girl guides are starting at least 70 beacons each in tribute to their patron the Queen, ranging from in Cornwall in the south-west of England to the Highlands and Islands, and Merthyr Tydfil and the Norfolk Broads.

In Wiltshire, a beacon will be lit in the same place and by the same Scout group as when one was lit on the night of the Queen's Coronation.

June 2 also marks the 69th anniversary of the crowning of Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey in 1953.

Teams form the charity Walking Wounded are taking beacons to the UK's highest points

Beacons will also be lit on top of the four highest peaks of the UK - Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, Mount Snowdon and Slieve Donard.

Beacons will be lit in all 54 Commonwealth capitals for the first time, spanning five continents.

Bruno Peek, pageant master of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Beacons, said: "It's amazing to see the range of charities, community groups and faith groups taking part.

"For the first time ever we are taking beacons all over the Commonwealth, to each of the 54 countries.

"It's wonderful to see people wishing to take part in so many ways, from traditional beacon lighting and bonfires to lighting up buildings and monuments."