Residents of Great and Little Bernera, islands off the shores of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, have voted in favour of a community buyout of the island. Last week 142 people voted in favour of the plan and 37 against with a turnout of 85%. The island had been owned by Count Robin Mirrlees who owned died last June. He had lived on Great Bernera for 40 years and following his death his family gave residents and crofters first refusal on buying it. Connected to Lewis via a road bridge, the buyout would cover 5,000 acres across both islands, including…

Scotland&apos’s drink drive limit has been lowered and comes into effect today (Friday 5th December). The new limit will bring Scotland in line with the rest of Europe, lowering the limit from 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood to 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. The new lower limit means that some drivers could be over the legal limit after only one drink and more drivers may still be over the limit driving the next day. Police Scotland estimate that they stop over 80,000 vehicles each month, with around 20,000 offences detected every month. The Police say being…

Perthshire writer Alan Laing has won not one but two prizes in a mountain writing competition. Alan, of Main Street, Balbeggie, has taken second prize in the prose section and third in the poetry section of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland’s Mountain Writing Competition 2014. And he’s no stranger to the competition either, for in 2013 he took third prize in the prose section. This year the judges praised his ‘Death and Life on the Mountain’ – an “imaginative exploration of the life of a mountain” which starts with the scattering of ashes on a Scottish hill. His poem, ‘Land…

Staff at the National Trust for Scotland’s 700 year-old Drum Castle have been left scratching their heads at a mysterious image captured by a webcam. The conservation charity’s wildlife team had set up cameras in the castle’s stables over the summer as part of a project to observe a nesting family of swallows. However, staff based at the Aberdeenshire castle discovered that they had captured more than they bargained for when checking photographs taken overnight. A strange mist can be seen in one of the images. The webcam is motion-activated, so something with a physical presence must have triggered the…

Calmac and North Link Ferries have teamed up to give away 8000 passenger tickets to the Scottish Islands including the Outer Hebrides and Orkney. Winners will be drawn at random through a weekly ballot on 12th, 19th and 26th March 2014. To enter go to the competition website and enter your details and what route you would like tickets for. Winners will receive a pair of adult tickets to the island of their choice within 14 days of closing date, these are foot passenger tickets, not including the cost of taking a vehicle on the route. If you don’t win…