Scottish Open comes to the Highlands.

A golf course near Inverness in the Highlands is hosting the Barclays Scottish Open for the next three years. This has been held for the last fifteen years at Loch Lomond Golf Club but it is now coming to Castle Stuart on the Moray Firth between July 7-10th. There will be live coverage of the event, which is part of golf's European Tour, on Sky Sports and BBC and it is the most northerly British venue to stage a European Tour event. The Castle Stuart Golf Links club only fully opened last year and has already been voted one of the best new links courses in the world. It has an unusual art deco clubhouse overlooking the Moray Firth and is within easy distance of Inverness Airport and should be very good for a variety of businesses in Inverness as well as the surrounding area. It is perfect preparation for The Open Championship which this year will be staged at Royal St. George, Kent from July 14th. Last year the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond was won by Italian Edoardo Molinari.

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Snow on tops

More snow has been falling mainly on higher ground making Mealfourvonie, the highest mountain around Loch Ness, look very picturesque. The clear skies overnight have caused an extra problem of the recent snow and sleety rain icing up and the driveway is a glistening sheet of ice so we are not venturing out today for anybody. More snow is forecast for this morning and below zero temperatures for a few days and nights ahead. The good news is that by Saturday the temperature is expected to be a tropical 10C so we might be taking a dip in the loch....not!

Skating on thin ice.

Driving by one of the smaller lochs near Loch Ruthven, which has a famous RSPB Nature Reserve because of the breeding pairs of Slavonian Grebes, we noticed there was still thick ice on the surface especially by the waters edge. The sun shining on the icy surface of the loch produced a very picturesque scene. More snow fell last Thursday and the temperatures are below zero during the day with a clear night sky full of stars.