Scotland

The number of alcohol-specific deaths in Scotland remains the highest since 2008, according to figures published today by National Records of Scotland (NRS).

In total, 1,277 deaths were attributed to alcohol-specific causes in 2023, an increase of one death from 2022.

Male deaths continue to account for around two thirds of the deaths, increasing by 25, while female deaths decreased by 24.

Phillipa Haxton, Head of Vital Events Statistics at NRS, said: “The rate of alcohol-specific deaths peaked in 2006 and then fell until 2012. Since then it has generally risen.

“Those aged 45-64 and 65-74 continue to have the highest mortality rates. If we look at the average age at death, that has risen over time. The mortality rates for those aged 65 to 74, and 75 and over, were at their highest since we began recording these figures in 1994. As the same time for age 25-44 the mortality rate has been fairly stable over the last decade.”

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Scotland continued to have the highest alcohol-specific death rate of the UK constituent countries in 2022 (the latest year for which comparable data exists).

However, the difference between Scotland and the other UK countries has narrowed over the last two decades.

In 2001, the alcohol-specific mortality rate for Scotland was between 2.1 and 2.9 times as high as other UK countries. The rate for Scotland was between 1.2 and 1.6 times as high in 2022.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17058962

Thousands of people have walked over the remains of 385 million-year-old fish in the slab of Caithness flagstone outside Inverness Town House.

James Ryan, who works at a National Trust for Scotland museum dedicated to Highland geologist Hugh Miller, spotted the fossils while on a wander.

He said: "Whilst fossil fish are known in pavements in cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh, to my knowledge these fossils seem to have gone amiss."

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Mr Ryan said: "These fossils in the paving slab are the remains of ancient fish dating to around 385 million years ago - around 140 million years before the first dinosaur.

“Caithness flagstone was laid down as sediment over a period of thousands of years at the bottom of a giant freshwater lake which stretched from the Moray coast up north to Orkney and Shetland."

The fish date from the Devonian period, which are thought to include evidence of a fin.

Mr Ryan said: "I brought them to the attention of a palaeontologist who studies these fossils and they were not aware of them.

"The staff at Inverness museum likewise were not aware of these fossils either."

A former lawyer using the name of a movie vigilante has been convicted of a dark web murder plot to kill a Scots prosecutor.

Martin Ready targeted Darren Harty and planned to have him gunned down in a "gangland-style execution".

The 41-year-old ex-commercial contracts solicitor had gone to a site called Online Killers Market to try and organise the hit on the Glasgow procurator fiscal.

Ready used the alias Harry Brown - the same name as the main character in the 2009 Michael Caine film, who took it upon himself to get revenge for his only friend being murdered.

Ready told jurors he effectively turned vigilante to try and wipe out crime from his hometown of Coatbridge in Lanarkshire.

He alleged Mr Harty's family ran a bar which was used by criminals to launder dirty money.

The murder would have then “shone a light” and sparked a police probe into other alleged dodgy dealings.

But, Ready claimed he was delusional at the time and believed he was an "evil Jesus" figure.

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Jurors heard how Ready had gone on to the "dark" website, which ultimately turned out to be a front for a lucrative scam.

A total of 0.2913 Bitcoin - valued at £5,071 - was transferred to the administrator of Online Killers Market as "payment" for the "assassination" of Mr Harty.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16793453

The UK Government will not fight a legal challenge against plans to develop two North Sea oil fields.

Environmental groups Greenpeace and Uplift had brought legal claims to stop drilling in the untapped oil sites of Rosebank and Jackdaw.

It comes after the Supreme Court ruled that the environmental impact of new oil fields should be considered when granting licences.

The Government said its decision not to fight the challenge will "save the taxpayer money".

Rosebank is 80 miles to the west of Shetland and contains around 300 million barrels of oil, making it the UK's last major undeveloped oil site. Jackdaw is 150 miles east of Aberdeen.

The licences for the two fields have not been withdrawn. Energy giants Shell and Equinor - who are the developers hoping to drill at the sites - can still fight the challenge.

Plans for a tennis centre near Andy Murray's hometown of Dunblane have been scrapped over planning issues and rising costs.

The £20m project, led by his mother Judy Murray, aimed to build a community multi-sport facility at Park of Keir to mark the tennis legacy of the Murray family.

The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) pledged £5m to the project but it met opposition from campaigners who said it should not be built on green belt land.

Judy Murray's charity, the Murray Play Foundation, said "with deep regret and sorrow" it would now not go ahead.

A foundation spokesperson said: “Over 12 years, Judy has invested significant time and encountered indifference and opposition for much of that period.

"However, she and her team persevered until several factors conspired to leave the project unviable in its current form.

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However, Green MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife Mark Ruskell was one of those opposing the project.

He said: "I am proud the local community has stood up and protected Park of Keir.

"At the heart of this project was an exclusive luxury housing development that would have been damaging to the local landscape and would have eroded ancient woodlands and crucial greenbelt land."

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16275173

Archaeologists have uncovered a 2,000-year-old prehistoric settlement as part of development work on the site of the new HMP Highland in Inverness.

The excavation has led to the discovery of a roundhouse settlement relating to Iron Age and Bronze Age occupation of the site, which also contained earlier prehistoric remains dating back to at least 3,000 BC.

A wide variety of prehistoric remains were found at the HMP Highland site, including occupation areas related to domestic and industrial activities and structural evidence from the roundhouses and other timber structures.

The settlement consisted of 16 roundhouses that survived as circular alignments of postholes, where timber posts had once supported substantial hut buildings. Some of the house sites had been enclosed by palisade fencing to protect the interior.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16162047

One Scottish council area will be seeing double this school term, as an astonishing ten sets of twins are due to start primary school.

Dubbed "Twinverclyde", this marks the fourth consecutive year that twin counts in Inverclyde has reached double figures.

The record for twins was set in 2015, when 19 pairs began schools in the area. In the last 12 years, 10 of them saw more than 10 sets of twins begin school.

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The class of 2024 will take the Inverclyde twin count to 157 sets since 2013, which is an average of 13 sets each year.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16138208

A sandwich business in St Andrews looking to bring in a £1 'seagull insurance' on all purchases - as the birds steal food from up to 30 customers a day.

The owners of the Cheesy Toast Shack say they currently give free replacements to dozens of customers each day - due to seagulls swooping in, attacking people and stealing their newly-purchased food.

The business says this costs them hundreds of pounds a day - and are 'desperate' for a solution. The owners are now 'seriously considering' adding the gull insurance on every purchase to try to cover the losses caused by the winged menaces.

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Kate and her husband, Sam, 39, have made various attempts to deter the gulls. From playing birds of prey noises, to buying a bird of prey kite on Amazon - the couple say they have exhausted almost every option, 'apart from shooting them'.

Kate admitted: "The bird noises were not the vibe we ideally wanted down at the beach, and the bird kite we bought didn't do anything - people will sit under them and the gulls will still keep attacking, we have been lost for what else we can do."

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/15945465

A Scottish horror film has finally been released - 17 years after filming first got under way.

The Bench is a grisly slasher where a group of friends take a trip to a remote cabin in Renfrewshire, only to disappear one by one.

However, the production was struck by a host of difficulties, from badly misjudging the Scottish weather's suitability for filming to money running out half way through.

Writer and director Sean Wilkie told BBC Scotland News that he was a mixture of being "pleased, nervous and relieved" now that The Bench can be seen by the public.

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Filming began in Lochwinnoch in 2007, using a cabin owned by friends of the film's director of photography.

For indoor filming, the Caves venue in Edinburgh was used, with Drumpellier Country Park used for occasional outdoor shots.

The film has a cast that includes Two Doors Down star Joy McAvoy and Matt McClure from American horror show Penny Dreadful.

"The first two weeks on location were fine but we couldn’t keep that up," reflects Sean.

"I wish we’d have someone following us all the way though, as it would have made some documentary. Due to the weather and other things we couldn’t finish filming as planned, so we were coming back on odd weekends here and there to complete it."

That was only the start of the film's issues. Initial financing had fallen through at an early stage, but Sean decided to "charge ahead" anyway, something he admits now was "probably a mistake."

The film's original editor departed, so Sean took on that role as well, and by the time reshoots were needed many of the cast and crew were working on other projects.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/15571037

A rise in the number of students studying medicine in Scotland has resulted in a shortage of cadavers, according to a report.

Prof Gordon Findlater, who is HM Inspector of Anatomy for Scotland, found that surgical colleges were having to cancel university training courses because the demand for bodies was so high.

In his 2023-24 report, external to government ministers, he noted that the University of Edinburgh in particular had a "serious problem" in meeting this demand.

According to the Scotland Deanery, which is responsible for training doctors, there were 5,930 medical students in the 2023-24 academic year.

This was up from 5,645 the year before, external and up from 3,928 in 2015-16.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/14736241

Two of the original stars of the hit film Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory will appear at the Edinburgh Fringe as part of a musical parody based on a Glasgow event that left parents fuming and children in tears.

Julie Dawn Cole and Paris Themmen, who played Veruca Salt and Mike Teevee in the 1971 movie starring Gene Wilder, will co-narrate the stage reading of Willy's Candy Spectacular: A Musical Parody.

The show is based on the doomed Willy's Chocolate Experience, which sparked headlines across the globe after being advertised as a "chocolate fantasy" where "dreams become reality" - but instead turned out to be a sparsely decorated warehouse where children were limited to a couple of sweets and a quarter of a can of limeade.

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The cast of the parody was unveiled on Monday afternoon, with a bill that also includes Shelley Regner (Pitch Perfect series), Eric Petersen (Shrek The Musical), Nicole Greenwood (In Plain Sight), Wilkie Ferguson (Motown: The Musical), Cassandra Parker (Cabaret) and musicians Monica Evans and Chris Villain.

The show, created by US producer Richard Kraft and directed by Andy Fickman, will run at the Pleasance King Dome from 9-26 August.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/13015132

A Shetland woman has been telling how a search for a gene variant alerted her to her breast cancer diagnosis.

Christine Glaser, from Whalsay, had been a participant in Viking Genes, a research project that looked at the genetic make up of people from the Orkney and Shetland Islands.

Since those tests were taken, the understanding of the significance of certain genes has improved and last year geneticists sought special permissions to go back to those who took part in the study to ask if they wanted to know their results.

Although she had lost a sister to ovarian cancer, the family was unaware many of them carried a BRCA 2 gene variant that increased their risk of breast, ovarian and prostate cancer.

Christine’s cancer was caught early and successfully treated.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/12822375

Secondary school pupils have created a comic which shares some of the unique historical stories of Scotland’s oldest Highland regiment.

For the past three months, a group of 30 Perth Grammar School pupils have been putting pen to paper and bringing history to life, detailing seven stories from within the city’s Black Watch Castle and Museum.

The finished product is a colourful 12-page comic book, which will be made available to visitors through the summer holidays.

First year pupil Holly Harrold told STV News: “We started off by getting a sheet of questions, and we went through them on our phones and laptops and researched (the story).

“Then we sketched out a base idea on some plain paper, then wrote what we were going to say about it.”

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The collaboration between the museum, school and developing the young workforce has been described as “groundbreaking”.

Funded by Museum Galleries Scotland, the partnership is aimed at inspiring the next generation of heritage enthusiasts.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/12796407

It is a land of mire, mist and midges that could soon be awarded a special status among the planet’s wild habitats. In a few weeks, Unesco is set to announce its decision on an application to allow the Flow Country in north Scotland to become a world heritage site.

Such a designation is only given to places of special cultural, historical or scientific significance and would put this remote region of perpetual dampness on the same standing as the Great Barrier Reef, the Grand Canyon and the Pyramids.

The Flow Country straddles Caithness and Sutherland in the most northerly part of the British Isles and is the largest area of blanket bog in the world. Covering 4,000 sq km, it is also home to a remarkable range of wildlife that includes the black-throated diver, golden plover, greenshank, golden eagle, merlin and short-eared owl, as well as otters and water voles.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/12348267

A study by students from the University of the Highlands and Islands has revealed that a promontory in the Loch of Wasdale in Firth, Orkney, could be the remains of an ancient crannog.

A crannog is a partially or entirely artificial island, typically built in lakes and estuarine waters of Scotland from the prehistoric period onward

Despite significant variations in methodology, most crannogs on mainland Scotland were built by driving timber piles into the loch bed and filling the interior with peat, brush, stones, or timber to create a solid foundation.

In largely treeless regions like the Western Isles, these island dwellings utilised a diverse mix of natural, artificially enlarged, or entirely artificial islets.

The discovery was made by students from the UHI Archaeology Institute, who were conducting test-pitting on a promontory at the northern end of the Loch of Wasdale.

According to a press statement by UHI: “It appears as an islet on the 1882 Ordnance Survey map. Little is known about the site, but the fact the shoreside edges appear to show the remains of walling led to the suggestion it may be a crannog.”

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The test-pitting revealed large quantities of cairn-like rubble, in addition to more structural remains or a stone surface, indicating that the entire promontory/islet is artificial.

Martin Carruthers, a lecturer at UHI, said: “A structure made up of some very large masonry seems to lurk at the heart of the cairn makeup. Constructing this ‘monument’ must have been a very substantial undertaking.”

“In terms of artefacts, apart from some later post-medieval glazed pottery, we recovered a single worked flint, probably a ‘thumbnail’ scraper, which is most likely later Neolithic in date,” added Carruthers.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/11681223

Do you believe in Joe Hendry? From a wrestler's entrance music to beating artists like Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Dasha, it seems yes, the public do believe in Joe Hendry.

The Scottish professional wrestler saw his song 'I Believe in Joe Hendry' reach number four in the official charts, in what he describes as a "series of fortunate random events".

Now the 36-year-old from Edinburgh is considering his next move - whether projecting his face on the Las Vegas Sphere or writing a song for the first minister of Scotland.

Hendry, who is signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), was a musician for a decade before becoming a wrestler.

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Hendry not only has the support of the wrestling community, his family have his back too.

Drew Hendry, the SNP MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, is his uncle.

He said: "It’s been cracking to see the wrestling community and the wider public get behind Joe, he’s absolutely deserving of the top spot.

"I’ve always believed in him."

Joe has even offered his musical services to the new first minister.

"If John Swinney had given me enough notice, we could have done 'I Believe in John Swinney' for him, that would have been no problem," he said.

The song.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/11679178

Wrestling fans have hit out at "extortionate" ticket prices for WWE's first ever Scottish pay-per-view show, Clash at the Castle.

The "premium live event" comes to Glasgow's OVO Hydro venue on 15 June.

The cheapest tickets cost £300, with premium tickets more than £2,000.

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A WWE spokesperson told BBC Scotland News that some tickets had been on sale at lower price point across two nights at the venue.

However, they declined to give details of how many of these tickets were available or how many had sold.

Journalist Ross Brady, who has followed WWE to events in London, Cardiff and New Orleans, said he was not able to find a ticket for less than £300.

He said: "The first prices that went up were for combo tickets of around £330, so I waited for the event on the Saturday and it was £303.50 for just the single ticket.

My wife and I are looking to have a vacation in Scotland and we're trying to figure out what we should plan. We are American but don't care for tourists traveling. I love to feel a more realistic local experience. My favorite memories of our Ireland trip are small town pubs and rural scenic places. The museums like the one in Trinity College was good too. I enjoyed walking the backstreets of Dublin and finding the Stags Head pub.

Thank you for any advice.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/11208456

The Inverclyde Time Teamers, say they have found a previously unrecorded prehistoric hut circle, dating from between 1200BC and 500AD on the moors, just under a mile north east of Haylie viewpoint

Two of the detectives, Stephen McAllister and Allan Kinniburgh, were surveying the piece of land during Sunday afternoon after aerial photographs and computerised mapping and scanning equipment indicated it was a possible hotspot.

Stephen said: “Our target presented as circular structure with a very well defined raised outline, approximately 10 metres across.

"We thought it might have been a sheep ree, remnants of an Iron Age defensive dun or a prehistoric enclosure.

“Having had a closer inspection, and comparing this with similar structures we have visited or discovered, we have a very high level of confidence in announcing this as something that looks like a previously unrecorded prehistoric dwelling or hut circle find.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/11120995

Bonfires, blazing torches, body-painted dancers, drummers, jugglers, musicians, fire-eaters, ancient Celtic rituals and a spectacular backdrop.

No, it’s not a scene from cult film The Wicker Man.

It’s what you can expect at the annual Beltane Fire Festival taking place in Edinburgh capital this week.

Beltane is held each year on the last day of April, continuing overnight into May Day, to mark the arrival of summer and celebrate new life and fertility.

The event, which first began in 1988 as a protest against rave laws and a way to reclaim green spaces, includes modern interpretations of rituals and customs with roots dating back to the Iron Age. And fire. Lots of fire.

The May Queen, as her name implies, presides over the show, guiding a procession of drummers and performers around the city’s landmark Calton Hill and acting out healing rites.

During her journey she interacts with the Green Man in ceremonies symbolising the birth of summer.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/10167016

Proposals for a massive solar farm near Coylton are a step closer after South Ayrshire Council offered no objection to the plan.

Objectors had slammed the plans for 100,000 solar panels, which will generate 85 megawatts of electricity and fill an area the equivalent of 15 football pitches, claiming it would damage the protected ecology of the area close to Martnaham Loch.

But councillors on the Regulatory Panel were concerned that the amount of cash being proposed for community benefit was just a tenth of that agreed with wind farms in the area.

The Scottish Government’s Energy Consent Unit makes the final decision on the application, with the council a statutory consultee.

Independent councillor Alec Clark asked an agent for the applicant Locogen for the amount of community money being put up by the company for each megawatt of electricity generated.

He was told that, over the 40 year operation of the facility, £500 would be given per megawatt. This totals around £22,500 each year.

Cllr Clark was not impressed by the figures and said: “I would suggest that that is a very low level of community benefit. I am quite acquainted with the many wind farms we have around South Ayrshire, especially in the Carrick district, and the minimum community benefit there is £5000 per megawatt.”

JK Rowling has challenged Scotland's new hate crime law in a series of social media posts - inviting police to arrest her if they believe she has committed an offence.

The Harry Potter author, who lives in Edinburgh, described several transgender women as men, including convicted prisoners, trans activists and other public figures.

She said "freedom of speech and belief" was at an end if accurate description of biological sex was outlawed.

Earlier, Scotland's first minister Humza Yousaf said the new law would deal with a "rising tide of hatred".

According to reports in The Scottish Sun, Fritzl has said that if does get out, he wants to move to the Highlands because of its “spectacular scenery”.

He got the idea after watching a documentary about Shakespeare in his high-security prison.

He said: “I was filled with this wonderful, uplifting feeling, this sense of inspiration for this fantastic culture.

“And it was then I knew that when I get released, it is not Austria I want to stay, rather I want to emigrate to the UK.

“Above all I want to roam free on the wild Highlands of Scotland.”

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/4742834

Footage captures the moment a “hybrid panther” is seen stalking through the Scottish countryside.

At least, that is according to Gordon Welsh, 50, who was walking along a road near Blackdog, Aberdeenshire, when he spotted the animal.

Mr Welsh, from Aberdeen, says the beast spotted was the size of a greyhound – if not bigger – and was “solid looking”.

He is one of Britain’s big cat believers, who claim that the UK has its own wild population of large felids – like panthers and pumas.

“From the way it was moving, the tail size and that, it was slightly like a panther, but it could be a crossbreed,” Mr Welsh said of the animal.