Parts of the north and north-east have been named the sunniest spots in the UK last winter.
The Met Office has revealed that the entire north of Scotland reported an increase in sunshine hours during the meteorological winter, which runs from December 1 to February 29.
The UK average was 145.6 hours of sunshine during the period, while Moray recorded 216.6 hours.
Since records began in 1910, this has only been beaten by 222.9 hours in Moray in 2018 and 235 in 1930 respectively.
The national weather service also confirmed that Kincardineshire experienced its eighth sunniest winter since 1910, with Nairnshire and Banffshire securing their ninth and 10th.
Scotland averaged 138.4 hours of sunshine in total, up 8% on the usual average.
The biggest increase was in the Western Isles, which saw a 14% rise with a total of 118.4 hours.
In the Northern Isles, Orkney saw 113.3 hours of sunshine (up 13%), whilst neighbouring Shetland saw a rise of 11% increasing to 103.3.
Argyll and Bute recorded the smallest increase – 5% – which measured 130.3 hours of sunny weather.
‘Scotland had sunnier than average winter’
Met Office spokesman Stephen Dixon said: “Scotland had a slightly sunnier than average winter, with Moray, Kincardineshire, Nairn and Banffshire all recording winters within their top ten sunniest on record.
“This is in contrast to much of the rest of the UK, which saw frequent cloudy skies and rainfall, particularly in England.
“While some pockets of Scotland did have below average sunshine hours in winter 23/24, this was largely constrained to those further south as well as parts of central Scotland.”
