Traditional stone-built home with 15 acres

A handsome period farmhouse in a private rural setting, offering plenty of equestrian potential, is now for sale. Overton Farmhouse is located in a private situation, around 1.5 miles from the village of Kirkliston, amidst the West Lothian countryside. The farmhouse presides over approximately 13 acres of picturesque paddock grazing and is accompanied by a…

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Plans to open up the Devil’s Pulpit to tourists

Plans have been revealed today to create a tourist spot at Finnich Glen, near Killearn, in Stirlingshire. A detailed planning application for a 150-space car park, visitor centre/restaurant, and a network of paths, bridges and viewing platforms, has been submitted for the Devil’s Pulpit beauty spot. Architects and planning consultants Bell Ingram Design have lodged…

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Path repairs make it easier for climbers at Beinn a’Ghlo

Travellers on the A9 heading between Perth and Inverness will have noticed the obvious erosive mountain scar on Beinn a’Ghlo in the Cairngorms National Park. But not any more. Overseen by the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland (OATS) extensive path repair and upgrading works on the Carn Liath path on Beinn a’Ghlo have just finished…

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Have a say on plan to remove Highland phone boxes

There is a huge amount of opposition to BT’s proposal to remove 110 public payphones from across the Highland region. The Highland Council began a consultation, asking for the views of the public on removing the boxes. Most of the objections have cited below low levels of mobile phone ownership and their importance to elderly…

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Whyte & Mackay launches Wildcat Bramble gin

Whyte & Mackay continues to grow its gin portfolio by announcing the launch of a new flavour, Wildcat Bramble – the darker, thornier sister to Wildcat Gin. Available at Tesco throughout the UK, as well as in selected bars, Wildcat Bramble has been created to meet consumer demand for fun, varied flavours in up-tempo, after-dark occasions.…

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Novel focuses on issues affecting our former soldiers

R L McKinney’s debut novel follows Sean, a British soldier who has returned from Afghanistan after his best friend, Mitch, in an act of heroism saved his life but lost his own. With Mitch talking to Sean from beyond the grave, Sean begins to question his own sanity and finds the only place he fits…

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A history of warships built on the River Clyde in photos

Following on from his book on Clydebank Battlecruisers, Ian Johnston has written another using archive photographs showing the ships built by John Brown, a name that is synonymous with shipbuilding on the Clyde. The storied shipyard built some of the finest and most famous ships of the 20th century. Johnston has laid the book out…

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The dog whisperer who saves canine lives

Abbie Withers has worked with dogs for 35 years, in film and TV, and now as a behavioural consultant, saving dogs which might otherwise be put to sleep How did you first get started working with dogs? I worked as a vet nurse in the UK and in South Africa and met another nurse who…

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The debt to pleasure of the Merry Widow

The late Queen Mother’s great-great-great-grandmother, the fabulously wealthy Mary Eleanor Bowes, endured kidnapping, notoriety and lashings of scandal in a life that was lived to the full. With its pink sandstone walls and greyroofed turrets Glamis Castle looks like a fairytale palace. But the 14th-century castle in Angus, childhood home of the late Queen Mother,…

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Crime and punishment – 10 infamous Scots trials

Some of Scotland’s most infamous criminals have fallen foul of the law and ended up in the dock in ten of the country’s most remarkable and high-profile trials. Here, we highlight 10 of them. 1. William Burke (1828) Most people are familiar with the story of Burke and Hare, who murdered 16 people in order…

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