EXAM time is stressful enough, without coping with a new baby!

PRIMARY pupils in Helmsdale and Dornoch are among those who have contributed to an innovative online war museum showcasing a huge collection of photographs, footage and interviews from conflicts past and present.

BIG-hearted pupils at a Sutherland school have given the Red Cross a cash boost.

QUEEN'S Scout Calum Ross, from Golspie, has recently gained the Scout Movement's top award for personal achievement.

Jack Harrison , a veteran thought to be the last survivor of the Second World War prisoner of war breakout immortalised in the film The Great Escape , who died last Friday, was teaching at Dornoch Academy when he was called up.

OLYMPIC gold medallists James Cracknell and Rebecca Romero, will join Paralympic gold medallists Sarah Storey and Jody Cundy to lead 600 cyclists through Sutherland on June 12, as they pedal their way to Land's End as part of the inaugural Deloitte Ride Across Britain.

GREAT joy and thankfulness was expressed recently by the people of many small villages in the North East of Hungary, motivated by the delivery of a 45ft lorry carrying Humanitarian Aid from the people of Sutherland and the north.

OKAY, so it's probably going a bit far; but it's surely excusable, in the aftermath of one of the most seismic elections ever, to draw a parallel between Westminster and Golspie High School. For just as the winds of change are blowing through the national corridors of power, so is the breeze being felt in the somewhat less grand and not quite so hallowed corridors of the East Sutherland secondary school.

A species of ladybird which thrives on heather moorland has been spotted at a site in Sutherland belonging to the John Muir Trust, the UK's leading wild land conservation charity. The sighting of the hieroglyphic ladybird is the most northerly ever recorded.

THE polar points in Alex Murray's life were his home and his workplace.

THE dreaming spires of Oxford beckon this summer for Golspie High School pupil Ruth Mackay of Dudgeon Drive, Brora.

A TEAM of four youngsters from Rosehall Youth Club recently competed in the Annual Fairburn Youth Club Challenge.

YOUNG Scot, the national youth information agency for Scotland, announced this week that two, inspirational youngsters from the Highlands have been selected as finalists in the Sunday Mail Young Scot Awards 2010.

LAST year, Farr High School's Young Enterprise Team - Farr Woodcraft - won the Scottish Finals of the Young Enterprise Competition in Glasgow, before going on to come third at the National Finals in London.

APPROACHING his 63rd birthday, John Duncan, secretary/manager to Royal Dornoch Golf Club for almost 16 years, is taking early retirement from his post at the end of this month, but lays his pen to rest next Wednesday due to holiday leave accrued.

ROXANA Meechan of the Highland Council's community learning and development team, based in Golspie, has achieved her Post Graduate Diploma from the University of Dundee in Community Education.

AN adventurous Lairg engineer is in war-torn Sudan this week to use his skills to help others.

LOCHINVER'S James Graham, Mod gold medallist at the Fort William Mod 2007, has been appointed the 2010 Mod Development Manager by An Comunn Gaidhealach, organisers of the Royal National Mod.

FORTY years ago, 12 January 1970 was a red letter day in Harry Macdonald's angling career.

OLD Pulteney single malt whisky has helped a separated Cape Wrath couple celebrate their reunion this week with a complimentary bottle of whisky from their Wick-based distillery.

WELL known Rogart couple Johnny and Minnie Munro had more reasons than most to celebrate the start of 2010.

LAIRG'S first Santa Run last Saturday was voted a big success.

Oversteps resident Ivy Campbell celebrated her 100th birthday recently, making her the third resident in the Church of Scotland-run home at Dornoch to reach the milestone age.

Dornoch couple Stuart and Marjory Grant have already raised thousands of pounds for various charities by taking part in sponsored running and cycling events.

A SENIOR RAF officer, who received the insignia of his OBE from Prince Charles at a ceremony in Buckingham Palace recently, has strong East Sutherland connections.

THE first meeting of the season of the East Sutherland Bird Group saw a very satisfactory turnout of 52 members.

INSPECTOR Ramsay Aitken, who is based in Dornoch and is Inspector for Sutherland, has received a Royal Humane Society award.

LIKE every other student nearing the end of their time at university, I live in constant fear of the inevitable question – "So what are you going to do afterwards?"

A DELICIOUS flavour of France washed down with a generous helping of Gallic charm has come to the Dornoch Castle Hotel.

The excavation of a site in a clearance village at Strath Brora has unearthed a number of exciting items including a piece of imported Chinese porcelain and a tiny blue glass bead.

CITY high fliers Julie Beavan and Paul Whitty ditched their jobs and moved to Rogart to bring up their three children in the countryside.

LOCAL MSP Jamie Stone is joining forces with the breast cancer campaign to raise awareness of its award-winning fundraising event, Wear it Pink, on Friday, October 30.

Historylinks Museum in Dornoch has been awarded the prestigious VisitScotland 5 Star museum status – the only one awarded in the Highlands, and one of just seven in Scotland.

A NEW bookshop called Novel Idea has opened in Tain recently, owned and run by young businessman, Martin MacKenzie, with the backing of the Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust.

MAGNUS Monahan from Spinningdale this week took up his new full-time role as the Highland's Youth Convener.

OVER the past six weeks, Brora Golf Club's junior convener has been busy ensuring that the club's first international junior golf exchange has gone well.

VERY few of the many who arrived in Bettyhill from all over the country for the recent Gala turned up on foot.

ALL those who listened both at home and in the audience to the BBC Proms 2009 concert on Saturday night could not have helped but be enraptured by the soaring music.

THELMA Henderson has taken over as managing director of Scottish Provincial Press, the Inverness-based publishing group whose titles include The Northern Times.

A VERY popular choice for chieftain of this year's Durness Highland Gathering was Lachlan Ross from Kinlochbervie.

A FORMER builder whose life had to change when he suffered a serious illness has become the North Highland College UHI student of the year.

A VENTURE set up to provide manufacturing and business experience for senior pupils at Farr High School in Bettyhill has scooped the top award for Scotland in this year's Young Enterprise Scotland company programme finals at Glasgow.

THE Kyle of Sutherland Youth Development Group has opened the doors of a silver bus as a youth café for people in the area.

LT COL (Ret) Colin Gilmour visited the Dornoch detachment of the Army Cadet Force to meet members of the unit who, with Brora Cadets, are looking forward to taking part in a flag-raising ceremony outside the Highland Council offices at Drummuie, Golspie, next week.

THE chieftain of this year's Assynt Highland Games will be local hotel manager Nick Gorton.

AT THE end of my letter printed recently in the Northern Times on how Golspie, New South Wales, got its name from George Murray of Golspie, Sutherland, I said that if anyone had any further information I would love to hear from them.

THE Cape Wrath Challenge has now become truly established as a great community event, billed as unique, which is entirely organised by volunteers dedicating both their time and abilities to the week .

ARCHAEOLOGIST Steve Boyle from Scotland's Rural Past (SRP) led a walk and exploration of the clearance settlement of Lettie, in Rogart parish, recently.

LAIRG'S first Mayfest day, run under the Lairg and District Community Initiative and led by their project worker Graeme Mackay, was a huge success with the whole village being busy all day and parking spaces almost at the stage of being auctioned!

A DORNOCH Academy pupil is heading off around the world to help her studies after winning £4000 of support from the Royal Geographical Society-IBG's Learning and Leading Gap Year Programme.

SUTHERLAND Floral Art Club celebrated its 40th anniversary on Wednesday of last week with a special lunch at Brora Golf Club.

PUPILS of a north Sutherland primary school have turned video stars in a bid to attract a head teacher.

ROYAL DORNOCH Golf Club's junior team, accompanied by professional Gary Dingwall and junior convener Mike Thomas, have returned from this year's cultural and golfing exchange trip to South Carolina, USA.

IT MAY have raised a few eyebrows at the time, but a nude calendar produced in Rogart last year has also raised a substantial sum for charity.

LIKE MANY bright young men doing National Service in Britain in the late 1950s, Angus McEwan took Russian lessons.

IT IS typical of the man that Colin Ploughman chose to be presented with his MBE in Golspie rather than at Holyrood or even Buckingham Palace.

I HAD never before been to Fulbari Tea Estate, our next stop. It is situated on the borders of Bihar and Nepal on the edge of the tea growing area.

THE most welcome and encouraging sight to greet the eye of the returning planter after an absence of four decades is the huge areas of high quality, high yielding clonal tea that has been planted by their successors.

I NEVER thought that I would wake up at cock crow to hear the five o'clock hooter on a tea garden once again.

FOUR Pupils from Farr High School, Bettyhill, are in London this week to take part in the UK's first national Young Scientists and Engineers Fair.

YOU may think there is nothing out of the ordinary about this picture of two men reading a copy of the Northern Times in front of a Golspie signpost.

It's being billed as one of the signature events of Homecoming Scotland 2009.

THREE of Farr High School's four Advanced Higher maths candidates travelled to Lagganlia, near Kingussie, last weekend to joint other budding mathematicians from all over the North of Scotland for the Highland Senior Mathematics Weekend.

SANDY Young of Seaforth Road, Golspie, has retired after 33 years' service with the Scottish Ambulance Service.

O' A' THE airts the wind can blaw, it seemed to be blowing mostly on the east coast as Brora's programme of Burns Suppers got under way at the golf club on the evening of Friday, 16th January.

PUPILS FROM Tongue Primary School had fun last week planting 20 young native trees, complete with deer guards and wooden stakes.

Hamish Armes-Harris, an S1 pupil at Kinlochbervie High School, has won third prize in the "Focus" national photography competition.

Christmas was doubly exciting this year for one East Sutherland girl.

THE man who has made it a personal crusade to maintain Golspie's Big Burn Walk has been awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours list for community service to the village.

PROVIDING her home village of Helmsdale with a new fire station was one of former Highland councillor Rita Finlayson's main ambitions.

THE children of Lochinver Primary School performed carols and a Nativity play in the village hall on Monday night. This year they were joined by the children from pre-school who sang Twinkle Twinkle to much applause.

CHRISTMAS came early for a north-west Sutherland community group this week with the announcement that they had won a substantial grant award.

A SUTHERLAND teenager who is serving with the Coldstream Guards is being featured on a Channel 5 series focusing on Army cooks who have been working on the front line in Afghanistan.

A PRISON officer at Saughton Prison, Edinburgh, Alasdair Sutherland, formerly of Woodend, Tongue, has been awarded a prestigious scroll for his "highly meritorious service" to the Army in Scotland.

LOCHINVER brothers Kenneth (24) and Alister (22) have got a lot in common.

A THIRD-year joinery apprentice from Tain, who works for the housing and property department in Sutherland, was chosen Trainee of the Year at the Highland Council's annual quality awards, held at North Highland College in Thurso on Monday night.

THERE'S no shortage of cake to go with a cup of tea in champion fundraiser Catherine Young's household.

FIONA McLeod has joined UHI, the prospective University of the Highlands and Islands, to perform a vital role as director of development responsible for fundraising from the business and private sector.

WHEN David Sutherland and Iain Clark of Brora signed up for a charity ride in Africa, little did they think they would end up hobnobbing with royalty.

FEISTY great-grandmother Tibbie Fenelon of Gashagaich, near Dornoch, has in recent years raised over £10,000 for her favourite charity, Arthritis Research.

OVER 100 SWRI members from across Sutherland gathered at Carbisdale Castle last Saturday to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Sutherland Federation.

THE dedication of two Caithness-based NHS Highland staff and the North Highland Community Health Partnership's smoking cessation advisors has been recognised in this year's staff awards.

YOUNG Cameron Taylor of Dornoch has described a church trip he made to America this summer as the experience of a lifetime.

A COUPLE from Tongue are celebrating the birth of the baby daughter they thought they could never have.

ADRIAN Kandel and Kate Morrison are at a distinct advantage when it comes to letting the Sutherland holiday home they have newly renovated.

ALMOST two years ago Louisa Burnett's beautiful newborn baby died in her arms at the family home in Dornoch. The young mother was cradling the infant and thought at first she was asleep.

BIKES held aloft in triumph and with the Eiffel Tower in the background, three Sutherland cyclists celebrate reaching the end of a 300-mile London to Paris charity bike ride.

LAIRG Free Church was packed on Friday evening, 1st August, for the ordination to the ministry of John Forbes (29) from Farr, near Inverness and his induction to the charge of Bonar Bridge and Lairg Free Church.

FOR years Betty Armstrong, 2 Church Street, Dornoch, has been a stalwart supporter of two local pipe bands.

SOME days I have to pinch myself to remind me that I'm not dreaming. Last night was one of those times.

GOLSPIE teenager Lewis Williamson, 17 Fraser Street, is achieving national prominence this season in the highly competitive world of kart racing.

SUTHERLAND resident Mrs Helen Innes received belated recognition this week for "doing her bit" to help feed the nation during and just after the Second World War.

A DYNAMIC duo from the Highlands are setting off on a motoring adventure next month in aid of the charity Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland.

THREE Sutherland pupils and one from Wester Ross represented young people from the North West Highlands Geopark at the World Geopark Conference in Osnabrück, Germany, from June 20-29.

RETIRED Golspie High School PE teacher Sue Smith of Dornoch returned home this week to a rousing welcome having completed a round-the-world race in a 68-foot racing clipper.

WHEN Scott Coghill and his German-born bride Silke Plaff decided to get married, they didn't bother to book a church or registry office.

TWENTY-four new S3 and S4 pupils of Golspie High School took part in a Wilderness Challenge on Alladale Estate near Ardgay last week.

SUCCESSFUL bed and breakfast provider Fiona Garvie of Auchlea, Poles Road, has this year won both prizes in the Dornoch Customer Care Awards.

CATHY Maclean, the longest serving member of staff at the Tongue branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland, has retired after a total of 35 years behind the counter, the final seven as branch manager.

MEDICAL advances may have led to people living longer, but reaching the age of 100 is still a relatively rare achievement.

MOST young folk celebrate their 21st birthday by cracking open a bottle of champagne and partying until the small hours.

AN ELDERLY woman who was brought up on a now long-uninhabited island off Sutherland's north coast, this week paid a nostalgic return visit to her former home.

GOLSPIE Wildlife Watch celebrated its first anniversary on Saturday with an interesting and well attended trip to the RSPB's peatland reserve at Forsinard.

CALUM Ross of the 1st Golspie Explorer Scout troop received his Platinum Chief Scout Award from local Scout leader David MacDonald.

AN exciting summer break experiencing life across the Atlantic lies ahead for a group from Dornoch Free Church.

EMBO'S historic village hall has been demolished, closing the curtain on its 112-year history.

AN Army piper from Assynt, Corporal Peter MacGregor, has had the honour of playing in front of the Queen.

CAITHNESS, Sutherland and Easter Ross MSP Jamie Stone embarked on a fact-finding rail mission this week – but was unable to fulfil his boyhood dream of driving a train.

IT'S a far cry from the hills, lochs and coastline of Assynt, and Corporal Ben MacLeod even misses the cold!

IN any settlement across the globe, it seems, can be found someone of Scots or Highland origin.

LAIRG Primary School held a great day of fundraising for Sport Relief last Friday.

MEDICAL student Emma Ross will have little time to relax when she returns to her Sutherland home for the Easter break.

BILL Grant's 28 years of loyal service as secretary and treasurer of Dornoch Highland Gathering was celebrated with a dinner in his honour at Royal Dornoch Golf Club.

LOOKING forward to the challenge of a lifetime are motorcyclists Iain Clark and David Sutherland, both from Brora.

WHEN GP Mary Fortune quit the Brora health practice last year, she did so because she felt in need of a change.

LOUISE Smith, convener of the Caithness Energy Alliance, is to play an important role in revitalising the economy of the far north following the decommissioning of Dounreay.

CERTAIN DATES are imprinted on the collective memory.

AN INNOVATIVE activity booklet has just been produced, with the aim of teaching children about the history and wildlife surrounding Brora Harbour.

A LARGE turnout witnessed the first cast of the salmon season on the River Helmsdale by experienced local angler George Sutherland last week.

OPENED 15 years ago, Ferrycroft Countryside Visitor Centre at Lairg has since suffered from the reputation of being somewhat dull - but not for much longer.

A YOUNG Rogart girl has become the 65cc class North of Scotland Motocross champion and is aiming this year for the Scottish and British Championships.

BBC ONE'S popular Sunday night programme the Antiques Roadshow will take viewers to the Castle of Mey, former home of the Queen Mother, this weekend.

A PIECE of sandstone, inscribed with mysterious ancient runes, is to become the focus of a new exhibition after being installed at Dunbeath Heritage Centre more than ten years after it was discovered by local schoolchildren.

FOR over 40 years the Stornoway Dance Band was a firm favourite on the social scene. No local event was complete without its toe-tapping dance music and the group became a legend in its own time.

HIGHLAND Council is holding a series of civic receptions to mark the voluntary service of court and signing Justices of the Peace, many of whom are retiring as the result of changes to lay justice provisions which took effect this week.

TWO students at Brora Learning Centre have been recognised in the annual Celebration of Achievement Awards in Inverness.

WHEN Golspie postmaster Jonathan Creed tore down a partition during renovation work at the post office it was a chilling moment.

ALEX Munro is quick to dispel any myths about the romance of sheep shearing.

SUTHERLAND Accordion and Fiddle Club held a grand celebration in Rogart Hall on Saturday to mark the 25th anniversary of the club, which began in November 1982.

ONE OF Gaeldom's best known and best loved characters, Hamish Menzies, hangs up his baton as conductor of Dingwall Gaelic Choir at the end of the year.

A SUTHERLAND woman has become the first bed and breakfast owner to scoop the most prestigious prize in the Scottish tourism industry.

THE Pipes and drums of the 1st Battalion Scots Guards recently travelled to Moscow to take part in the inaugural Kremlin Zoria Festival.

GRANT MacNicol, head chef at the Dornoch Castle Hotel in Dornoch, has made it to the finals of this year's Highlands and Islands Tourism Awards.

FORMER Highland Councillor Duncan Allan received a resounding "thank you" last week from residents of Dornoch and Embo.

HIGHLAND Disability Sport has named Golspie pensioner Kathy Sykes as one of its sports personalities.

FARR High School has, for many years, presented a special book prize to a promising student on the brink of tertiary education.

EAST Sutherland Rescue Association, which this year celebrates its quarter-century of active service, on Sunday paid tribute to a dedicated former founder member by naming its latest fast rescue boat after him.

ORGANISERS OF the Dunrobin Castle Piping Championships have hailed the event as a major success following the eighth annual competition on Saturday in which more than 60 pipers, from seniors to schoolchildren, took part.

WHEN Edinburgh couple George and Muriel Philip took their two daughters on a caravan holiday in Assynt for the first time, it was the mid-1960s and there were none of the luxuries taken for granted today.

JOCK Sutherland from Durness was in action with his dog, Maid, who at nearly 11 years old was the oldest dog in the Scottish National Sheep Dog Trials which took place in Fearn near Tain, over three days last week.

RETIRED Sutherland dentist and veteran charity fundraiser Norna Hall, from Matron’s Cottage, Cambusavie, is about to embark on her most ambitious and arduous project yet, which is an unsupported 1300-mile cycle ride taking in the four compass points of mainland Britain.

THE internationally important peatland of Caithness and Sutherland will join other national natural treasures like St Kilda and Beinn Eighe when The Flows National Nature Reserve is launched today (Friday) by Rob Gibson MSP.

AUTHOR Gillian Ogilvie will be at the Tower Bookshop in Tain tomorrow (Saturday) to sign copies of her second book, entitled Lost in France.

A SUTHERLAND man who was spurred on to raise thousands of pounds for charity when his wife died of cancer is now battling the illness himself.

THE North-West Cattle Producers’ Association has appointed Phil Taylor as its new co-ordinator.

THE North Coast Leisure Centre in Bettyhill opened as the North Coast Leisure Pool on 29th April 1995 and in the intervening 12 years has been managed by Sheena Mackenzie of Melvich.

ONE of the more innovative events organised in Sutherland to celebrate the Highland Year of Culture was a celebration of the life and times of the drovers.

A NEW employee for the handyperson service for the over-60s and those with a disablilty in Sutherland has recently been taken on and is based at the Lairg Care and Repair Office in the industrial units.

A BEAUTIFUL tawny owl chick is settling in at the Bird of Prey Rescue Centre near Inverness after falling 50ft to the ground from the window ledge of a Sutherland church.

A MUSSEL FARMER from north-west Sutherland is one of the growing but still select band of people who can say they have stood on the top of the world.

LOCHINVER creel fisherman and avid Scotland football supporter Bruce MacKenzie set sail for the Faroe Islands last week in his boat, the Fortitude, hoping to see Scotland play the Faroes in the Euro 2008 qualifier on June 6.

FIONA Gilmour, daughter of Colin and Carol Gilmour of Shenaval, Altass, and three friends from Edinburgh - Pete Thomson and Andy and Tracy Norris - took on the challenge of cycling coast to coast across Scotland last month, a journey of around 50 kilometres. Here Tracy tells their story.

A WILD golden eagle chick has become the first to hatch in Ireland for nearly 100 years – and its mother comes from Sutherland.

VINTAGE car enthusiasts in Caithness and Sutherland should keep their eyes on the road early next month in the hope of catching a glimpse of some of the world's best known cars.

TWO new residents are happily settling in at the Church of Scotland's eventide home, Oversteps, at Dornoch.

SUCH WAS the impact of her experiences in East Africa that Linda Ross says she would jump on a plane and return there tomorrow if she could.

A DATE has been set for what looks likely to be the most novel and eye-catching fundraiser of the year.

WHEN Sutherland woman Evelyn MacKenzie decided to stand for the Highland Council in next week's election she was confident of at least two votes.

BONAR Bridge pensioner Alice Grant has clocked up more than a million miles as a volunteer driver for the ambulance service.

GOLSPIE soldier Mark MacRae travelled to West Africa recently with the Pipes and Drums of the 1st Battalion Scots Guards to take part in the 50th anniversary celebrations of Ghana's independence.

A YEAR and a half ago, millionaire businessman Paul Lister created a stir when he announced a plan to launch "safari" tours on his newly acquired Sutherland estate.

MORE than a century of service to Northern Constabulary was recognised at a retirement presentation which was held recently in the Trentham Hotel, Dornoch.

SIMON and Jennifer Allen have recently taken over ownership of the Caberfeidh restaurant and public house in Lochinver.

THERE was a grand social gathering and ceilidh in Rosehall Hall recently to mark Garrie and Iain Munro’s retirement as managers of Achness Hotel in Rosehall.

A COMMUNITY timber venture has opened for business in the heart of the Flow Country of Sutherland.

A BUSINESS consultant and veterinary locum from Wester Ross has been appointed to a new advisory forum in a move to develop further links between Scottish Natural Heritage, local communities and external groups.

ALNESS man Robert Maclean has been appointed to lead 17 Openreach engineers responsible for all business and residential phone lines across the Sutherland area.

FURTHER TO my recent article on learning to play the accordion a bit later in life than most people who get involved in these musical skills, there is a man mentioned in the unravelling of my tale who deserves a story of his own.

THE chieftain of the 2007 Durness Highland Gathering is to be journalist Willie Morrison, it was revealed this week.

GAZING OUT of her arched kitchen window and on to the tree-lined drive sweeping down to the imposing bulk of Dunrobin Castle, Dympna Rochford muses that she is “the luckiest girl in the world”.

WHEN Doreen Mackay was growing up in a village on the north coast of Sutherland in the 1960s, she thought a bus trip to Thurso was a huge adventure.

A TAIN couple upped sticks this week and set off on an adventure of a lifetime. Peter and Chris Howell, both aged 52, of Burgage Drive, have packed in their jobs — Chris as manageress of both filling stations in the town and Peter as an internet analyst with BT in Alness.

AS A youngster I was a Scots exile living in London and when I was seven I had an opportunity to learn to play the piano.

THE 2006 PGA exams will be remembered for their toughness and the fact that only 13 assistants in Scotland managed to pass them. But Lesley MacKay from Golspie, one of Scotland’s most successful amateur golfers over the past decade, was one of the 13.

THE Albannach Hotel at Baddidarroch, Lochin­ver, was last week named among the top 10 in The Independent’s 50 Best Brit­ish Hotels.

A SUTHERLAND crofter and a local councillor have gained awards in the New Year’s Honours List.

A NEW JOB beckons for Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise’s head of business management, Susan Smith.

THE LAST time I visited the Royal Golf Hotel in Dornoch, it was for an office Christmas party.

A PROMINENT central Suther­land landmark for more than two centuries is in the process of demolition.

A SPECIAL service was held in Lairg Parish Church last Friday evening to welcome another lay member as a newly-qualified reader in the Church of Scotland – the fourth in Sutherland in recent weeks.

NORTHERN Constabulary Deputy Chief Constable Garry Sutherland this week presented some of his officers and support staff with Long Service and Good Conduct medals and Long Service Certificates.

NEARLY 100 people crammed themselves into the community centre in Brora last Thursday evening, eager to hear veteran Doll resident George MacBeath recount some of his memories and stories of yesteryear in the latest of Clyne Heritage Society’s winter talks.

EAST SUTHERLAND Bird Group's first meeting of the new session on November 6 proved to be a visual feast, not untouched by nostalgia.

THE mother of Lyme disease sufferer Margaret Thomson has called on public agencies to do more to warn people about the illness.

A RUN-DOWN Sutherland hotel, well-known as a venue for fostering musical talent in the North, has been bought over by two brothers from Cornwall.

IN PROBABLY his last press interview before retiring, Sutherland's most senior police officer, Inspector Alan Drummond, lets slip an unexpected snippet of information.

AN ORIGINAL Fifie fishing boat can now be seen proudly on display at Helmsdale's old inner harbour.

KINLOCHBERVIE High School rector Dr Ian Smith undertook a novel fundraising stunt last Friday.

A UNIQUE handcrafted log home recently built in Sutherland is attracting substantial interest from potential housebuyers across the UK, according to the local man behind the project.

THE substantial remains of an old shepherd's cottage, hidden from view for well over half a century deep in the middle of a Sutherland wood, have now been uncovered as a result of a large-scale tree-felling operation.

Golspie Beavers took part in the Cheeky Monkey's Marathon Challenge for the national charity Children with Leukaemia.

Beset by various difficulties and only rescued late in the day by the generosity of sponsors, Invercharron Highland Games deserved some luck in its silver jubilee year.

SPEEDING AT 120mph round a race circuit last season, Sutherland motorcyclist James Urquhart suddenly came to grief, crashing his powerful and very expensive Yamaha 1000cc bike.

THE NINTH annual four-legged race organised by Bonar Bridge Primary School PTA was held on a beautiful sunny Saturday evening, as cheering locals and visitors lined the route.

FORMER Dounreay worker Tommy Weale, one of the North Coast's few remaining native Gaelic speakers, celebrated his 100th birthday last week.

EVEN WITH the help of an above average interest in history, or perhaps time travel, it's difficult to get a grip on what 16,000 million years actually means.

THE ANNUAL Loth and Helmsdale Flower Show in Helmsdale Community Centre on 25th and 26th August was a great success, with increased entries in many of the categories.

I TURNED ROUND and couldn't believe my eyes. There he was standing only a metre away from me - my idol David Beckham. All I had hoped for had come true.

IT'S NOT everyone who wants to house 25 large rare breed rabbits in their back garden and another 18 chinchillas in the house, however cute and captivating, but Morag Fox from Ord Place, Lairg, does and her three infant children love them.

ON 9th April, 1917, the 51st Highland Division, including the 5th (Caithness and Sutherland) Battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders, formed the backbone of a British attack on the Hindenburg Line at Arras, a strategic thrust designed to divert German troops away from the main target of Allied attack that year, further north on the River Aisne.

THE success of a project to help the survival of one of the UK's rarest bumblebees has caused a real buzz in the north coast village of Bettyhill.

LAST month, on what must have been the hottest day ever in Ross-shire, the Scottish Executive's Enterprise Minister Nicol Stephen visited the KBR yard Nigg. As the constituency MSP I was asked along too.

BEN Klibreck is the highest mountain in North Sutherland, a towering 3154 feet of Moine schists shadowing Loch Naver to the north-west and Loch Choire to the south-east.

Traditional crofting is changing but David Green, chairman of the Crofters Commission, is optimistic about the future. For the last of our special series on Scotland's 'New Lairds,' he spoke to Bob King.

Continuing our special three-part series on Scotland's 'New Lairds,' Bob King talks to Highland historian and land reform enthusiast Dr Jim Hunter, who says the astonishing thing about community buy-outs is that so many of them have gone so well.

THREE artists have been appointed to carry out artistic interpretation of heritage sites in Mackay Country, each working in different forms and media.

In the first of a three-part series, Bob King looks at Scotland's 'new lairds' - the increasing number of local communities who are buying their land.

GOLSPIE-BASED ambulance staff Gordon Raspin and Sandy Young demonstrated the capabilities of a £100,000 state-of-the art new ambulance which has just replaced the station's older model.

A HAVEN of temptation for chocoholics has opened in the Sutherland village of Durness, where a local resident has launched a luxury chocolate manufacturing business called Cocoa Mountain.

A LARGE area of internationally important peatland in Caithness and Sutherland is set to become Scotland's latest National Nature Reserve.

EARLY in May three representatives from Dornoch visited Stromsund in the north of Sweden. Dornoch Focus Group members Robin Ashby, Fiona Garvie and John Garvie, rector of Dornoch Academy, were very well received on their reciprocal visit after they had entertained Stromsund representatives in Dornoch in April. Robin Ashby reports.

WHEN he retired two years ago to the picturesque village of Lorgues in the coastal Var region of France, just an hour's drive from Nice, Brian Anderson thought he would sit back and simply enjoy the sunshine and a well earned rest.

ASSYNT Mountain Rescue Team staged a successful joint exercise with the Northern Constabulary and the Reay Forest Estate at Loch Glencoul recently. Taking part in the exercise was team member Murdo MacPherson, principal teacher of social subjects at Kinlochbervie High School. Here is his account of the day's activities.

Local councillor Duncan Allan, an admirer of Prince Charles's 'model village' of Poundbury in Dorset, outlines his vision for the future development of Dornoch and urges townsfolk to have their say on the new Local Plan,