Ottery St Mary's Flaming Tar Barrels event has been named one of the UK's top 500 experiences by leading travel experts, Lonely Planet.

In the new ranked list of the most memorable, beautiful, surprising and compelling sights and experiences across Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, Ottery St Mary's Flaming Tar Barrels was ranked 417.

The entry, entitled Dodge The Pagans And Flaming Tar Barrels Of Devon's Ottery St Mary, reads: "Here's a novel way to spend an evening. Get yourself a wooden barrel. Coat it with tar. Set it on fire, then strap it to your back and run around the streets of a little English village, trying not to ignite either yourself or the hordes of onlookers who have gathered to watch your antics.

"Normally, any person attempting this kind of lunacy would be packed off to the nearest psychiatric unit, but for one night of the year, running about with a flaming barrel strapped to your back is considered the height of jolly japery by the locals of East Devon's Ottery St Mary.

"Apparently it's all something to do with the Gunpowder Plot and pagan fire rituals; regardless, it's probably not a good idea to try it at home."

"The Flaming Tar Barrels festival is held on November 5 and starts at around 5pm. It's hugely popular so get there early."

Ottery St Mary's Flaming Tar Barrels is one of a number of Devonshire sights and experiences to be included in the list along with the Jurassic Coast, wild camping on Dartmoor, deer spotting on Exmoor and learning to cook at River Cottage in Axminster.

This is the first time Lonely Planet's community of travel experts have chosen the best sights and experiences and ranked them in order in Lonely Planet's Ultimate United Kingdom Travelist.

To create the list, the Lonely Planet team compiled every highlight from the Lonely Planet guidebooks to Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Every sight, attraction and experience that had caught their writers' attention over the years were included.

Everyone in Lonely Planet's London office, plus 20 leading figures in the country's travel sector, were asked to reveal their favourite spots and experiences before the voting began.

Everybody in Lonely Planet's UK community was then asked to vote for their top 20 experiences.

With hundreds of votes cast, Lonely Planet ended up with a score for each of the 500 experiences in the book.