A massive wildfire in Dornoch was finally extinguished on Saturday – more than 36 hours after fire crews were alerted to it.
Fire crews across the north were stretched last week as warm and windy weather made for perfect conditions for wildfires.
More than 3,200 acres of heather, gorse and trees were destroyed at Balvraid, near Dornoch, after a blaze broke out at about noon on Thursday.
Crews from all over the north of Scotland, as well as a number of specialist appliances had to be drafted in to bring the flames under control.
Two homes were evacuated after the flames came within 100ft of their homes.
And yesterday one resident paid tribute to the fire teams for preventing from the flames before they reached his home.
He said: “I’m very grateful to the fire service for their work and the local community for rallying round.”
The evacuated residents were put up in a nearby croft until it was safe for them to return home.
Firefighters used eight hosereel jets and four main jets to fight the fire, as well as portable handheld equipment.
Two argocat off-road vehicles were also called in to help firefighters reach some of the hardest to access areas of the massive area of moorland which was affected.
Overnight rain from Friday to Saturday helped firefighters damp down the flames, and it was finally extinguished just before 4am on Saturday.
Further north, firefighters in Sutherland were battling another major blaze at Melness near Tongue, which broke out in the early hours of Friday morning.
The fire was eventually extinguished just after 2am on Saturday morning, again after rainfall helped fire crews contain the outbreak.
However, around 1,500 acres of moorland was destroyed in the blaze, although it was far enough away from properties to be deemed less of a threat than the Dornoch blaze.
A number of smaller wildfires broke out across the north at the end of last week, with crews dealing with blazes in Benbecula,
Lochinver, Lewis, Alness, Tain and Inverness at various points.