£7,000 for The Capon Tree

THE Capon Tree, one of the few survivors of the ancient Jed Forest, has received £7,000 of funding to help with its conservation. The ancient sessile oak is estimated to be between 700 and 1,000 years old and is recognised by The Tree Council as “one of Britain’s 50 greatest trees”. The cash came from…

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Record audience for Granite Noir festival

A RECORD 15,000 people visited Aberdeen over the weekend for the Granite Noir crime writing festival. The festival’s seventh outing attracted almost 11,500 people to its shows, with a further 3,000 or so visiting the “Curriculum of Crime” exhibition at the city’s Music Hall. Highlights of this year’s festival included author Val McDermid in conversation…

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Move from research to conservation to save migrating birds

SCIENTISTS want efforts to shift from research to conservation in order to save migrating birds. Species under threat include cuckoos, swifts, and turtle doves, as well as swallows and whinchats. The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) warned that gaps in research into the problem shouldn’t…

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Spirits news from the Hebrides

THREE spirits stalwarts on the Outer Hebrides are having a busy start to the year. Angus A MacMillan and Angus E MacMillan, the father-and-son team building Benbecula distillery, have unveiled the first three bottles from MacMillan Spirits. They’ve launched: “Wheelhouse Whisky”, an eight-year-old single cask Islay single malt; “Machair Gin”, a gin that contains heather…

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Hotel du Vin, Glasgow

Hotel du Vin, Glasgow: On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me… the gift of festive lunch for two and Champagne Our stunning iconic Hotel du Vin Glasgow at One Devonshire Gardens is set in a tree-lined Victorian terrace in the fashionable West End of Glasgow. Offering remarkable, unique bedrooms, heart-warming…

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Foresters donate Scottish Government Christmas tree

THIS year’s Scottish Government Christmas tree has been donated by a Scottish forestry company. Highfield Forestry, which is based in Perth, grew the seven-foot Nordmann Fir at Beauly, near Inverness. David Grieve, head of operations at Highfield Forestry’s Biggar office, said: “We are really proud to have been able to supply the Scottish Government with…

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Banchory Bangle raffle deadline approaches

THE raffle to win this year’s “Banchory bangle” comes to an end on Friday. Jewellery designer Malcolm Appleby has made been making a bangle each year since 1976 to raise money for Children 1st. Appleby uses recycled gold and silver to make his bangles, which have raised £184,000 so far for the charity. Raffle tickets…

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Scots get adventurous in new film

TOURISM body Wild Scotland has released a film encouraging locals and visitors to try its members’ adventurous activities. Nurture Your Adventurous Spirit – which is available on YouTube or below – features wildlife and adventure tourism operators from throughout Scotland. They include Nikki Dayton-Gelati from Wilder Ways, which runs horseback archery courses in Southend on…

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Restoring Cairngorms forests – one burger at a time

VENISON from red deer shot in the Cairngorms is being sold to fund tree planting. Deer are culled in the Cairngorms National Park to stop them from eating the growing tips off tree saplings. The venison has gone on sale in the shop at the RSPB’s Loch Garten nature reserve. Previously, Lynbreck Croft – which…

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Have you seen a spotted flycatcher?

THE spotted flycatcher is one of six species of migratory birds returning home to Scotland right now – and scientists need your help if you spot one. Researchers at the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) are fitting spotted flycatchers with tags so that they can track their flights between Scotland and Africa. Monitoring the birds…

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