A MAN has died after a fire broke out at an environmental activist’s camp site in Midlothian. Police and fire fighters were called to the campsite at Bilston Glen, near Loanhead, at around 3.30am today (Mon). The man is believed to have been in his 20s and a woman, also in her 20s, [...]
POLICE are investigating the mysterious death of a man in a blaze at a camp occupied by environmental activists. The victim is believed to have burned to death inside a ramshackle wooden hut on the site in Midlothian. A woman who was badly burned in the same incident early this morning (mon) took herself to [...]
LEGENDARY Queen guitarist Brian May has given his outspoken backing to Scots campaigners fighting Donald Trump’s golf resort plans. Aberdeenshire residents fighting against the compulsory purchase of their homes wrote to May asking for permission to use Bohemian Rhapsody in a protest video. A “disgusted” May wrote back: “I can see there is a horrible [...]
DINERS at a top Scottish restaurant will be treated to a visual feast of 3D images that are linked to what they eat. The Ubiquitous Chip, Glasgow, will project 3D images of a leaping salmon as customers tuck into their fish course. A flock of woodpigeons and a cow called Suzie are also among the [...]
BOND star Sean Connery was admired by Soviet leaders because of his humble background, according to a close friend. The Kremlin took a close interest in the 007 actor because of the anti-Soviet tone and content of some Bond movies. And some Politburo members feared the Scots actor shared the “dangerous imperialist tendencies” of the [...]
A SMALL town in Midlothian has emerged as Scotland’s best performer in the property stakes over the past decade. The average house price in Penicuik rocketed from just £62,000 in 2000 to £172,000 last year, a whopping 179% increase and the biggest anywhere in Scotland. The figures were revealed in a Bank of Scotland survey [...]
A BRAVE mum-of-three has revealed she is making a second attempt to conquer Ben Nevis – in a wheelchair. MS sufferer Sally Hyder had to abandon her first attempt because of technical problems . But the determined 48-year-old will again battle to reach the highest peak in the UK this summer. She will be helped [...]
THE Scottish Government has been forced to upgrade its Robert Burns iPhone app after users complained it was buggy and inaccurate. User ratings originally averaged just two-and-a-half stars out of five and one disenchanted Burns fan simply wrote: “Crap App.” The app was developed by the Scottish Government to give fans of the national Bard [...]
THE father of Peter Tobin victim Vicky Hamilton has suffered a stroke which doctors are blaming on the endless, chronic stress of the tragedy. Michael Hamilton collapsed last week and spent two days in hospital. The health scare comes just months after he was hit by a heart attack. The Hamilton family are locked in [...]
AN astonishing 451 phone boxes in Scotland – one in 10 of the total – were completely unused last year. And at a cost of £800 each a year to maintain, that left BT with a massive bill of £360,800. The decline in phone box use is increasing sharply as mobile phone use reaches saturation [...]
Christine Lavelle and Amanda MacMillan A POLICE dog handler has been found dead under mysterious circumstances in East Lothian. Friends of Police Constable John Burke, from Musselburgh, suggested there may have been a “tragic accident”. The 41-year-old was a uniformed officer who served with Lothian and Borders Police force for 22 years. His body was [...]
THESE are the images of two people police say are vital to their investigation into the disappearance of Edinburgh woman Suzanne Pilley. Lothian and Borders Police have released the CCTV footage, which shows a man and a woman on Thistle Street – one of Ms Pilley’s last known locations, the day she disappeared on 4 [...]
CULT classic Trainspotting will come home to Edinburgh next week with a special screening at one of the key locations in the film. Based on the best-selling book by Irvine Welsh, the BAFTA award winning film is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. It will be shown at the Royal Scottish Academy on Wednesday 2 [...]
A BOY has become the first child in Scotland with special needs to guide himself to school by using sat nav technology. After five weeks of training with a state of GPS device, 16 year old Craig Nibloe can now travel on his own between his Edinburgh home and Pilrig Park School where he is [...]
A COUNCIL has been fined £80,000 after a horrific blunder by workmen resulted in the death of a 90-year-old woman. Catherine Walker died after she fell into a hole in the hallway of her home which had been left open by workers from West Lothian Council. The staff had been working on a new heating [...]
ANDY Murray’s mother has said the success of her tennis-playing sons has helped Dunblane recover from the massacre of 16 children. Judy Murray said people no longer automatically thought of tragedy when they heard the town’s name but of Andy Murray. Murray told the New York Times: “From time to time, there are anniversaries of [...]
A KIND hearted white van man stopped in the middle of rush hour traffic to show a lost swan some ‘luv’ as it lay in a gutter. Derek Spratt, 37, from Stenhouse in Edinburgh, saw the swan lying at the side of the busy Queensferry Road as he made his way home from work shortly [...]
SWEET-TOOTHED shoppers can roll back the years as a new generation of childhood favourite ‘Creamola Foam’ makes a comeback on Scotland’s shelves. The powder will strike a chord with youngsters of the 1950s right through to the late 1990s, when manufacturers Nestle stopped production of the favourite, sparking a wave of disappointment and a growing [...]
A BYRON fan is considering paying £10,000 to adopt one of the writers famous manuscripts in a scheme aimed at preserving a unique publishing archive. The National Library of Scotland’s Adopt a Manuscript scheme contains 100 unique John Murray Archive manuscripts – many of which are handwritten by Scotland’s greatest writers and thinkers. And one [...]
THEY are run over in their thousands every year. But now a squirrel has taken revenge by knocking out a car. Andrew Nairn took his barely driveable vehicle to a garage to be told by a mechanic that 6lbs of nuts had been hidden in the engine by a squirrel. The rodent had stolen hundreds [...]