Locals in a Wester Ross village were left shaken and stirred by two earthquakes in quick succession over the weekend.
The first of the 2.5 magnitude quakes stuck at Ullapool at 5.32pm on Saturday and then again five minutes later.
They were recorded by the British Geological Survey at a depth of 6km and 7km respectively.
The BGS said the quakes were felt by a few residents in Ullapool and nearby Letters.
Different reports say “the house creaked”, “was like a huge gust of wind hit the house” and “we thought it was an explosion”.
Latest in series of quakes
The tremors come just three weeks after another Highland village suffered three quakes in four days.
The largest was a 2.2 magnitude tremor and was recorded at Roybridge.
Residents said they felt the last of the trio in Spean, Bohenie and Roughburn, with reports of a “big banging” noise.
One wrote: “Another earthquake in Roybridge???”
Another said: “I just heard a big banging in Spean, I thought it was someone’s bins or something.”
A third wrote: “Heard and felt it.”
It came four days after people in the west of Scotland were shaken and stirred by a significant earthquake.
The earthquake, with a now upgraded magnitude of 3.4, happened at 1.44am.
Its epicentre was about 11 miles (18km) north west of Lochgilphead in Argyll and Bute, and 88 miles (142km) north west of Glasgow.
The British Geological Survey said it was felt by more than 40 people at Achnamara, Tayvallich, Lochgilphead, Tarbert, Ardrishaig and many other villages and hamlets the region – mainly from within around 40 km (24.8 miles) of the epicentre.
Typical reports described, “we felt and heard a loud, deep rumbling”, “the loud bang woke us up”, “sounded like an explosion”, “the house and windows shook” and “it was like rolling thunder”, said the BGS.
‘It kept on intensifying and the house vibrated’
The agency said the quake happened 12km below the Earth’s surface.
Rosemary Neagle, who lives on a farm in Kilmartin Glen near Lochgilphead, said the noise of the tremor was so loud that she initially thought something had exploded in one of her sheds.
She said: “It kept on intensifying and the house vibrated. It rumbled on for about 10 seconds afterwards, so it was quite frightening.
“I have experienced them before here but never to that extent. The house has never shook like that in the past.”
In comparison, the largest known Scottish earthquake occurred near Loch Awe in 1880, with a magnitude of 5.2.
