Scotland’s Businesses Are Beginning to Worry More About Missing Customers Than Rising Costs
Falling demand has become the most commonly cited main concern among Scottish businesses for September 2026, narrowly ahead of energy prices. At the same time, the share of firms reporting rising turnover has fallen sharply from the previous month and
Scotland Is Preparing to Put Legal Price Ceilings on Food, Potentially Selecting Imported Food Over Scottish Food
The Scottish Government has now published the first detailed framework for statutory controls on the price of essential food. What began as an election proposal has reached consultation with draft legislation, proposed
Wind Turbines Are Getting Too Big for the Roads. Scotland Is About to Try a Different Design.
A wind farm near Lairg will become the first project in Britain to use GE Vernova’s Cypress turbine. Its blades can be transported in separate sections and assembled closer to the wind
The Invisible Infrastructure Running Scotland’s Water Is Being Rebuilt for £230 Million
Scottish Water’s new technology contracts began on 1 September. Behind Scotland’s reservoirs, treatment works and 64,000 miles of pipes sits another national network: thousands of communications links, operational control systems, cloud platforms
Glasgow’s M8 Is Being Physically Lifted Off Its Supports This Weekend
Engineers will close the eastbound M8 through central Glasgow for extended periods between Friday night and Monday morning while they jack part of the Woodside Viaduct away from the concrete structures that
Another Scottish Energy Company Is Being Sold Overseas
Capricorn Energy has spent more than four decades building businesses from Edinburgh, from the North Sea to India, Senegal and Egypt. A new £292 million takeover by Norway’s DNO could now remove
Scotland’s Peatlands Are Becoming Financial Assets
New restoration contracts appeared this week for peatland on North Uist and in the Highlands. Behind the engineering work is an emerging market in which repairing damaged Scottish land can create carbon
Scotland’s Lost Kingdoms Left Their Art in Church Walls, Graveyards and Broken Stone
Before there was a kingdom recognisably called Scotland, the country south of the Forth and Clyde was divided between competing peoples, churches and rulers. They left comparatively little writing, but they left
DataVita’s North Lanarkshire AI plan gets public backing as Flynn repeats disputed 3,400 jobs claim
A £300 million expansion of DataVita’s North Lanarkshire AI data centres is receiving substantial public financial backing while the Scottish Economy Secretary continues to repeat a claim that the wider development will
Apparently, Backgammon is Fashionable Again
I discovered on Tuesday morning that backgammon is fashionable again. I was having my second cup of tea and reading about the things fashionable people are doing when I came across the news. Backgammon, it seems, has returned to drawing rooms, clubs and fashionable tables, where attractive people are once again moving little counters around expensive boards while looking as though they have understood the rules since birth. “Backgammon is back,” I told Mr Gunn. He looked up from his breakfast. “Where did it go?” “Out of fashion.” “When?” “I don’t know.” “Well, how do you know it’s back?” “Because
The Working Gardens of Scotland
There is a particular dignity in the working gardens of Scotland, one that has nothing to do with ornament and everything to do with endurance. It was never designed to impress. It was arranged to feed. In the crofts of the Highlands, the small plots of the Lowlands, and the narrow strips behind cottages and tenements, a quiet system took shape over generations — one that understood climate, season, and necessity with remarkable precision. These were gardens of function, where potatoes, cabbages, carrots, onions, and beans formed the backbone of daily life. Each plant was chosen not for novelty, but
When Does a Visitor Become Taxable?
I have been reading about the proposed Highland Visitor Levy, and I have questions. This will surprise nobody who knows me. I have questions about most things. I once kept a washing-machine engineer in the kitchen for forty minutes because he said the noise was “within normal parameters” and I wanted to know whose normal parameters we were discussing. The Highland Council is consulting on a visitor levy which, if eventually approved, could mean a charge of £5 per room per night for hotels, B&Bs and similar accommodation, and £2 for hostels, campsites and caravan parks. This sounds straightforward. Nothing
Tie The Knot Scotland
There are few industries in Scotland that combine heritage, hospitality, design, fashion, tourism and local business quite as naturally as the wedding sector. Tie the Knot Scotland has positioned itself at the centre of that landscape by creating a platform that functions both as a practical planning resource and as a broad showcase of Scotland’s wedding venues, suppliers and changing wedding culture. The site serves couples planning weddings across Scotland, from large formal gatherings in castles and country houses to smaller ceremonies in coastal venues, registry offices and rural estates. Its directory structure is extensive and notably well organised, covering