Latest news with #ScottishIslands
The Irish Sun
03-07-2025
- The Irish Sun
The UK island where wallabies roam free with plans for new holiday lodge to open
DID you know there's an island in Scotland where wallabies roam free? Inchconnachan Island is surrounded by the fresh waters of Loch Lomon and it's unofficial name is Wallaby Island thanks to the animals that live there. 4 A colony have been living on the island for 85 years 4 It's possible to visit the island by boat, kayak and canoe Credit: Adobe Stock/Dominic Walter A colony of red-necked It was said that Lady Arran transported the animals from her home in Hertfordshire where she also kept pot-bellied pigs, llamas and alpacas. The wallabies, which are native to Australia, have survived on the island by eating oak, holly and birch trees. The number of wallabies on the island is not confirmed, some reports say there are as many as 60 with others as few as 7. Read More on Scottish Islands Over the years, in their 85 years on the island, wallabies have adapted to the Scottish climate. They've even been seen hopping across the frozen loch at certain times of the year. Visitors can visit Wallaby Island for free, but to get there comes at a cost. There are no public ferries that head over to the island, so anyone wanting to see the wallabies has to make their own way over. Most read in News Travel It's possible to get to the island via private boats, kayaks, paddleboards or canoes from the nearby village of Luss. Wild camping is permitted on Wallaby Island, as long as campers leave everything the way they found it. Bizarre Scottish Island mysteriously covered in Gnomes 4 There could soon be a holiday home on Wallaby Island Credit: Flickr/ FionaG999 However, in years to come, there could be a holiday home on the island. In 2020, Scottish TV and radio presenter And in January 2025, the pair were granted permission to build a holiday lodge on Wallaby Island. The plans were met with controversy from the public, with an online petition against the building work gaining over 100,000 signatures. A spokesperson for the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority said the planning permission "will have no implications for the wallabies on the island." The plans are to build a holiday lodge which will be for short-stay rentals as well as a new boathouse and a jetty so that guests can get onto the island. The old timber bungalow once owned by Lady Arran will be demolished. There will be a new natural wet woodland created during the works, which is to improve the biodiversity of the island. One man has been island hopping around Scotland, and And the group of 4 Inchconnachan Island is nicknamed Wallaby Island Credit: Getty
The Sun
03-07-2025
- The Sun
The UK island where wallabies roam free with plans for new holiday lodge to open
DID you know there's an island in Scotland where wallabies roam free? Inchconnachan Island is surrounded by the fresh waters of Loch Lomon and it's unofficial name is Wallaby Island thanks to the animals that live there. 4 4 A colony of red-necked wallabies were first introduced to the island in the 1940s by the Countess of Arran. It was said that Lady Arran transported the animals from her home in Hertfordshire where she also kept pot-bellied pigs, llamas and alpacas. The wallabies, which are native to Australia, have survived on the island by eating oak, holly and birch trees. The number of wallabies on the island is not confirmed, some reports say there are as many as 60 with others as few as 7. Over the years, in their 85 years on the island, wallabies have adapted to the Scottish climate. They've even been seen hopping across the frozen loch at certain times of the year. Visitors can visit Wallaby Island for free, but to get there comes at a cost. There are no public ferries that head over to the island, so anyone wanting to see the wallabies has to make their own way over. It's possible to get to the island via private boats, kayaks, paddleboards or canoes from the nearby village of Luss. Wild camping is permitted on Wallaby Island, as long as campers leave everything the way they found it. Bizarre Scottish Island mysteriously covered in Gnomes 4 However, in years to come, there could be a holiday home on the island. In 2020, Scottish TV and radio presenter Kirsty Young and her husband bought Wallaby Island. And in January 2025, the pair were granted permission to build a holiday lodge on Wallaby Island. The plans were met with controversy from the public, with an online petition against the building work gaining over 100,000 signatures. A spokesperson for the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority said the planning permission "will have no implications for the wallabies on the island." The plans are to build a holiday lodge which will be for short-stay rentals as well as a new boathouse and a jetty so that guests can get onto the island. The old timber bungalow once owned by Lady Arran will be demolished. There will be a new natural wet woodland created during the works, which is to improve the biodiversity of the island. One man has been island hopping around Scotland, and here are the top five islands that rival Skye. And the group of islands in Scotland have been named one of the happiest places to live in the UK. 4
Tahawul Tech
01-07-2025
- Business
- Tahawul Tech
UK operators seek to connect rural areas
UK mobile operators are ahead of schedule in their plans to cover 95% of the landmass with 4G as part of a rural connectivity scheme, with attention now shifting to areas marked total not spots (TNS). Along with the landmass targets, companies involved in the Shared Rural Network (SRN) completed projects involving roads and premises which were scheduled for January 2027. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) stated it is now working to address areas completely without coverage based on consultation with relevant communities and interest groups. The TNS plan is mostly focused on Scotland, with priority now being given to popular tourist areas, walking routes and Munros. In a related statement, the SRN organisation explained state aid would be available to operators only when tackling areas 'with no 4G coverage' from any player, with a view to connecting the public, devices, emergency services, and 'rural activities and operations'. The TNS plan proposes constructing 44 new shared masts across northerly and north-westerly areas of the Scottish mainland and islands. Although hailing the SRN progress and refreshed TNS targets, the DSIT conceded the latest plan involves building fewer masts in Scotland than originally envisaged, though emphasised the current strategy focuses on popular tourist destinations. The DSIT emphasised any new masts would still 'go through the proper planning processes' and be 'considerate to areas of natural beauty', local history and ecology. Source: Mobile World Live Image Credit: Stock Image
CBC
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
How a run-in with a giant eel influenced Cressida Cowell's bestselling book series
How to Train Your Dragon is one of the most successful children's franchises of all time, spanning books, animated movies and a new live-action remake that just hit the big screen. With its focus on mythical fire-breathing creatures, this fantasy series might seem as far from reality as you can get. But author Cressida Cowell, the creator of the original book series, says a lot of the story was inspired by her real-life childhood experiences. Growing up in the 1970s, Cowell spent every summer holiday roughing it with her family on a remote Scottish island without electricity. Her father, a businessman, was an avid outdoorsman who took every opportunity to live off-the-grid in nature. "His heart was in the wilderness," Cowell tells Q guest host Gill Deacon in an interview. "Every year from when I was a baby, we would be dropped off on this uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland and picked up again two weeks later." When Cowell was nine, her dad built a house on the island so their family could vacation there all summer. She remembers him telling her stories about the Vikings who had once invaded the area. This gigantic six-and-a-half foot conger eel was writhing around in the lobster pot. "This was Viking Scotland, basically, it was the first place the Vikings came to when they invaded Great Britain and it was the last place they left," she says. "Lots of the stories from the islands … were about dragons because Vikings thought that dragons were real." One day, while out fishing with her dad, Cowell had a surprise encounter with a real-life monster. "My dad put this lobster pot over the side and he jumped back on the boat and this gigantic six-and-a-half foot conger eel was writhing around in the lobster pot," she says with a laugh. "He had to tie it to the back of the boat because he couldn't take it on, you know, these things are huge! … You can see why Vikings believed that dragons were real." The author says her relationship with her father, whom she describes as being "fearless," is very much reflected in her books. Cowell has just released a new spin-off novel, How To Train Your Dragon School: Doom of the Darkwing, which is out now.
The Guardian
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen review – anything can happen on this remote Scottish island
Often thought of as the northernmost point of the British Isles, the Scottish island Muckle Flugga lies on the outer reaches of the Shetland archipelago. Norse legend has it that this craggy and almost uninhabitable place was created by two warring giants, obsessed with the same mermaid. While throwing boulders at each other, one of the rivalrous giants' missiles accidentally plopped into the sea: and so the island was born. A version of this mythic tussle is central to Michael Pedersen's debut novel. When the narrative opens, delivered in a lively present tense sprinkled with Scots, The Father and his 19-year-old son Ouse are the only residents on the island. The Father mans Muckle's lighthouse, and is as volatile as the waves he illuminates. A gossip from a neighbouring island describes him as irascible, with 'a viper in his throat and … a broken soldier's thirst for whisky'. Ouse, meanwhile, is 'a queer sort' 'who sounds as if he's been sooking helium out of party balloons … always staring off into the distance'. He's famed in the area for being an 'artiste', a dab hand at needlework with a reputation for producing beautiful handmade textiles. What unites father and son is that they take their stewardship of the island seriously. They are devoted to the extraordinarily various wildlife – puffins, gannets, sea otters, peacock butterflies – and hypnotised by the thrillingly chimeric weather. Unspoken grief for The Mother, who drowned two years before the story begins, also binds the two together. The Father assumes his only heir will eventually take over the family business. Enter Firth, a foppish twentysomething failed writer from Edinburgh with griefs of his own. Racked with self-loathing, he has vowed to kill himself after fulfilling a promise: to visit the enchanted isle of Muckle Flugga, much loved by his late grandfather. Almost as soon as he arrives, Firth is entranced by Ouse's mercurial demeanour, as he parses landscapes and seascapes alien to Firth's urban eyes. Firth is struck, too, by the blazing potential of Ouse's artistic talent. He wants to whisk him away to the mainland and make him a star. Thus begins the tug of war for Ouse's allegiance: The Father, familiarity and tradition yank one way, but Firth, possibility and the seductive unknown pull just as hard. This perhaps presents the plot as neat and fairly recognisable: a narrative of masculine archetypes vying for one-upmanship, with notes of The Tempest. But Pedersen introduces wild cards – spooky visions of religious zealots, a pumpkin-punching contest – that emphasise the strangeness of this remote place, so far away from the norms of the mainland that anything might be possible. Significant among these zany additions is the ghost of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson – who came from a family of lighthouse engineers – acts as imaginary friend and confidant to Ouse. He counsels Ouse for his maternal loss and guides him through the decision about where his future might lie. Pedersen threads the apparition's dialogue with aphorisms from the real Stevenson's work and correspondence. The novel's most memorable feature, and perhaps most potentially divisive one, is its loudness. The characterisation of the villainous but vulnerable father, of the hapless city type and of the ethereal innocent is bold and broad – sometimes cartoonish. The setting, rich with images of the aurora borealis and storm-lashed shores, is almost psychedelic. But the narrative voice is loudest of all: constantly baroque, with the linguistic and emotional dials turned up high. Firth receives an unexpected letter, and the missive is 'a Pandora's box, a bete noire, a curse, a lifeline, an arch nemesis, a fairy godmother … a gift from the gods'. A flurry of snow after an exchange between the protagonists is 'a divine offering, the impetus for reconciliation under the auspices of a natural phenomenon'. Pedersen is known as a poet, and his wonder at the magic of language is evident in this self-consciously high style. In places, the linguistic busyness occludes the plot's more interesting undertones: the queer desire between Ouse and Firth, considerations about our place in and responsibilities to the natural world. But there is, ultimately, something immensely charming about this novel. It is weird, rambunctious and repeatedly demands the reader surrender to its particular wildness. Its generosity of spirit, its unrestrained warmth and humour – the brilliantly kinetic description of a surprise ceilidh is a case in point – steadily worked away at my scepticism. Like Ouse's flamboyant designs, inspired by the spectacular landscape around him, it is 'garishly alive'. Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen is published by Faber (£16.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.
