SCOTLAND has the best public gardens in the UK with one that aims to save plant species threatened with extinction top of the pile, according to new consumer research.

FERRY cancellations have again hit islands businesses as another vessel in CalMac’s ageing fleet broke down.

At 5.30am on July 13, a lone and weary cyclist wearing open sandals and carrying camping gear rode out of the dark blueness of a Parisian night and into the impending daylight.

It was a spectacular end to a great tournament last Sunday but it was also very sad considering the reaction to the three black players who missed penalties in the shoot-out.

SNP ministers have been warned by a government document that poor air pollution levels “could potentially amplify” the heath impacts of Covid-19 if the infection is “still in circulation at significant levels”.

SCOTLAND’S cities are safe and ready to welcome back tourists from the UK and internationally, VisitScotland has said.

Over the last week we have seen the best and the worst side of sport.

APPROPRIATELY enough, the first episode of Andrea Catherwood’s new series on the state of Northern Ireland aired on Monday night, or the twelfth of July. Right on time for the return of the Orange Parades.

HE might be a dab hand at pulling a pint or two in Still Game pub, the Clansman, as Boaby the Barman, however for actor Gavin Mitchell he is much more at home in the security of one of Glasgow’s libraries.

ALMOST three quarters of Scottish businesses have no plans to cut their carbon emissions in the next year despite the country hosting global efforts in just 16 weeks' time to tackle the climate emergency.

Holidaymakers returning from France have been told they must continue to quarantine – even if they have been fully-vaccinated – when restrictions ease on other amber list destinations.

THIS year marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott, one of Scotland’s great writers. He is also one of the country’s great myth-makers, sometimes reshaping history to his ends. So much so, that, even today, we all live in a ve...

For this piece we spoke to Emma Ritch, director of Engender – who tragically passed away last week.

IT was 'freedom' - but it was short-lived.

Scotland needs a radical shift in the way that power and influence are distributed to help address democratic deficits and rebuild trust in the political process, The Ferret has been told.

JO MUIR has been learning Japanese so she can talk to horses. It may seem a peculiar way to prepare but when you’re participating in your first Olympic Games you probably don’t want to leave anything to chance.

The group has a portfolio of four and five-star properties

IF vaccination is our best way out of the coronavirus pandemic, what can and should we do if uptake is stalling among the young?

The owner of an Italian restaurant in Glasgow's west end says she was subjected to 'daily' anonymous hate mail after installing outdoor dining pods.

The leasing round has attracted significant interest from a raft of major players.

While quantitative easing and fiscal stimulus have supported both markets and economies in recent years, are they storing up longer-term problems?

TECHNOLOGY sector veteran has been appointed to chair ScotlandIS

CRONYISM, seasonality and a ‘pingdemic’ were the Covid issues raised by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.

Hippos, walruses and whales could receive greater legal protection under Government proposals to extend the ivory ban.

A newcomer to Love Island has apologised from within the villa after a social media post of his using a racial slur emerged online.

ENTREPRENEURIAL Scotland is well represented in the new Council of Economic Advisors to the Scottish Government. I expect it will shortly get down to considering the country’s huge potential to create clean energy far beyond our domestic requiremen...

NO stranger to controversy, Mel Gibson has stoked the flames once more by saluting Donald Trump in a gesture that has thrown the spotlight back on the Hollywood star’s headline past.

THE town seemed to stretch in the sun, as if awakening after a period of hibernation. Campbeltown on a Monday moved slowly but purposefully. There were obvious signs of life after what seemed an eternity besieged by a pandemic.

THE process of infantilising Scottish public life never abates. It travels along well-worn paths by means of artifice and facsimile. It avoids the hard tasks, demanding time and effort, of improving lives and instead locks on to cultural ephemera req...

Number 16

I ASKED two Edinburgh council workers to stop spraying weedkiller on my kerb a few years back, explaining that I’d rather have weeds than see poison spread around my neighbourhood.

Fidelma Cook passed away on June 26. We are running a series

The final frontier

ALEX Salmond’s Alba party has reapplied to register official descriptions of itself after all its previous ideas were rejected by watchdogs.

THEY are the party of William Ewart Gladstone and his defining Midlothian Campaign. The party of Henry Campbell-Bannerman and his 1906 landslide victory.

PRITI Patel has insisted the UK and its people will always be “generous to refugees” after being accused of taking a punitive approach to those trying to enter the country.

Even Princess Anne must have been slightly entertained. Her Royal Highness once suggested that “golf seems to be an arduous way to go for a walk, I prefer to take the dogs out.”

FORMER St Johnstone striker Guy Melamed has turned down two lucrative transfer offers in Israel in a bid to continue his footballing career in the United Kingdom.

Only 1% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to latest figures.

Ross County have been handed another 3-0 Premier Sports Cup loss to Dundee after informing the SPFL they do not have enough players available to fulfil the fixture.

THE first show home at an exclusive new bungalow and villa development for over-55s in Kinross has been launched as developer Juniper Residential revealed a surge in interest from Edinburgh-based prospective buyers.

ST JOHNSTONE have expressed an interest in St Mirren winger Kyle McAllister.

SINCE its official inception by the North Highland Tourism Project in 2015, the North Coast 500 has been tackled by tourists, travel journalists and bloggers aplenty. But while there’s lots of advice out there for two-legged travellers, what about ...

IT is some kind of achievement, I suppose, to unite all sides in Northern Ireland in opposition to you. But that’s what Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis managed on Wednesday when he stood up in the Commons to announce that the Westminster g...

A Scottish health board has warned that its services may be put into 'code black' due to pressure from the coronavirus pandemic and staff absences, it has been reported.

The Prime Minister is a man who seems to favour loud, bold, categoric statements, whatever the reality.

RUTH Davidson has chosen the formal title she will be known as in the House of Lords.

Top lobbyists have called for the system to be changed in Scotland.

Ron Curran

Embark Group, a UK retirement solutions provider, has announced plans to hire over 50 people in Dundee as it moves to further build out its platform operations in the city.