Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Castle Stuart staff leave it late to make the cut

Green cutting at Castle Stuart this month
Green cutting at Castle Stuart this month

Greenkeepers at the renowned Castle Stuart golf course are testing both their long and short game skills due to unpredictable weather.

Expected severe wintry conditions mean staff are preparing for the arrival of snow, but spells of milder December weather mean they will have to cut the greens and fairways up until Christmas.

And wild fluctuations in temperature have meant daily changes to the cutting regime and preparations for the start of next season.

In one extreme case temperatures plummeted to -6C but rose to 14C the next day.

This year a flock of grey lag geese which stops off on farmland next to the golf course on their winter migration, arrived earlier than usual, signalling an early cold snap.

This led to the team starting their winter maintenance work in order to have the course ready for reopening on March 24 next year.

Chris Haspell, Castle Stuart course manager, said: “The geese normally arrive in mid-December, but they came early this year, signalling an early cold snap.

“We use a range of different forecasting techniques, including nature’s indicators, to inform us of weather patterns and we got our maintenance programme under way quite early this year.

“Since then we have had a period of milder weather, punctuated by spells of sub-zero temperatures. Such wild fluctuations can affect your decision-making and means you are working day-to-day and just have to react to the conditions.

“Some days we have had frost on the ground, but then warmer conditions which means the grass is still growing. Normally the last cut of the year is done by late November, but this year we will still be cutting greens right up to Christmas for only the second time since the course opened in 2009.”

The links course on the outskirts of Inverness hosted the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open this year for the fourth time in six years.

The major golfing event was hailed for providing a tourism legacy to the north after being watched from around the world.