Following hard on his success at Sron Ulladale, skydiver and BASE jumper, Simon Brentford recently undertook the first ever BASE jump from the Kilt Rock on the Isle of Skye. The Kilt Rock is a famous tourist attraction near Staffin on the Trotternish penisula on Skye. The 180 foot high cliff is composed of massive basalt columns which give the whole cliff a pleated look resulting in its name. The shore below is rocky and as the film by Adam Bibby shows, there is little time for Simon to manoeuvere himself before reaching the ground. Only the day before Simon…

Following on from the recently submitted plans for a windfarm at Dunmaglass in the Monadhliath, energy company RWE npower has submitted an application to construct a new windfarm at Allt Duine, 5 miles from Aviemore and Kincraig and on the very edge of the Cairngorms National Park. The windfarm would consist of 31 turbines, each over 400 feet tall, in an area whose economy is completely dominated by tourism. Andrew Brien, chair of Kincraig Community Council, was reported by the Press and Journal as saying ‘The community council does not yet have a view on this, which is why we…

A scheme to collect information on squirrels by texting sightings in Aberdeen is back for another fornight. Text-A-Squirrel was first launched in the city last year as a two-week pilot. The project hopes to collect data on where red and grey squirrels are by getting locals to send a text message every time they spot a squirrel. Sightings should be reported by texting RED or GREY, followed by the area, street or postcode where it was seen, and the person’s name, to 88802. The scheme is being run by Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels, a partnership project including the Scottish Wildlife…

Fire crews battled through the night to control a blaze at Blair Castle near Blair Atholl in Perthshire. The fire started in the middle of the evening on Thursday 10 March and quickly spread through the 13th century clock tower at the castle. At one point, seven fire crews worked to extinguish the blaze and stop it spreading to the rest of the building. Tayside Police said there was a significant amount of damage to the clock tower including the collapse of the roof and that the second floor had also collapsed down onto the first floor. No one was…