MONDAY was just another ordinary day in Bettyhill but turned into "something completely different" when, around midday, the village was suddenly deluged with a mixture of celebrity cyclists, a huge support team, including everyone from physios to security, a gaggle of continuity girls and at least four BBC film crews.

THE Highland Housing Alliance is releasing eight "New Energy Homes" in Golspie which are available for private sale, with prices starting from £130,000.

THE Royal Golf Hotel in Dornoch is on track to open on April 1, manager Robert Ratcliffe told a tourism seminar at the Burghfield House in Dornoch on Monday.

SNOW returned to Sutherland with a vengeance this week bringing widespread disruption to roads, schools and services throughout the area.

Blizzards swept in on Wednesday morning, three hours earlier than had been forecast. Some areas saw snowfalls of up to six inches.

TWO young girls enjoyed a taste of the high life on money stolen by a male acquaintance from the home of a Brora taxi driver.

A HOLYROOD committee has been urged to think again on proposals to crackdown on absentee crofters.

THE Highland Council and Highlands and Islands Enterprise have received the Options Appraisal they commissioned to look into possibilities for the future operation of Dornoch Slaughterhouse.

A PUBLIC meeting to "explore legal options" following the announcement last week by Scottish and Southern Energy that they are to take construction traffic for their Gordonbush Wind Farm via the A9 through Golspie and Brora, is being held tonight (Friday).

HEAVY construction traffic for the 35-turbine Gordonbush wind farm will be routed via the A9 through Golspie and Brora, it was announced this week.

Scottish and Southern Energy have now categorically rejected as too costly the alternative option of using a hill road built for the Kilbraur wind farm and accessed off the A9 at Drummuie, south of Golspie.

A NUMBER of parents living in the Rogart area have by-passed the local primary school in favour of sending their children to Dornoch Primary, it has emerged.

INTERVIEWS are to be held next week for the post of rector at Golspie High School.

HIGHLANDS and Islands SNP MSP Rob Gibson has called for local Grazings Committees to undertake and publish an annual report showing the condition of crofting holdings and grazings in each township.

EMPTY office buildings in East Sutherland, owned by the Highland Council, are to be marketed and sold, it has been confirmed.

A LOCAL GP last week cut the first turf for the new £8.3million hospital which will replace the existing Migdale Hospital at Bonar Bridge.

Dr Chris Mair, of Creich Surgery, Bonar Bridge, performed the honours to mark the start of work on the new hospital, which will provide inpatient and some outpatient services.

THE schools inspection system has come under severe fire from a North West Sutherland parent council.

CELEBRITY chef Albert Roux is to open his third Scottish Chez Roux restaurant in Lochinver.

A DISGRUNTLED Dornoch abattoir worker, set to lose his job when the plant closes shortly, says help promised to find alternative employment has not been forthcoming.

THE manager of a wind farm fund which is set to pump just short of £3m over 25 years into the south east Sutherland area has cautioned local people to use the money wisely.