A MEMORIAL garden planted in Grantown by hospice fund-raisers has been branded as a "disgrace" to the town.

THERE were thrills and plenty of spills on the Cairngorm ski road at the weekend when 28 carties and their intrepid drivers hurtled down the hill powered only by gravity.

ORGANISERS of the World Porridge Making Championship handed Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, a specially commissioned wooden spurtle to mark the official countdown to this year's contest.

PLANS for a new £11.5 million community primary school in Aviemore are expected to clear their final hurdle later this week, nearly six years after the project was first identified as a priority by Highland Council.

Cairngorms National Park planning officials are recommending that members approve full planning permission for the school when they meet at the Grant Arms Hotel in Grantown on Friday.

AN Aviemore man out walking with his dog in a forest by Kincraig has recalled the "startling" moment he crossed paths with a big cat.

AN Aviemore watchdog has called on housing authorities to publish lists of where new tenants arriving in Badenoch and Strathspey are arriving from.

A FATAL accident inquiry is to be held into the circumstances surrounding the death of Scout leader Stephen Young, who fell through a cornice at a nature reserve by Laggan.

TWO major wind farm applications which objectors claim will ruin Dava Moor are due to be heard by Highland councillors in Inverness next month.

RUNNERS in this year's Aviemore Half-Marathon will be forced to run down a coned-off section of the busy Cairngorm ski road instead of using a safe public track just yards away, which was paid for by the taxpayer.

BRITAIN'S fastest growing hotel chain Travelodge is understood to be in talks to open up its doors in Aviemore.

THERE should be a moratorium on £4 million public spending plans for CairnGorm Mountain and a "bed tax" introduced in the strath to underpin the attraction, it is being claimed.

A RETIRED Carrbridge couple had a close encounter of the eerie kind as they were left mesmerised by a silent red "blob" in the sky above their home.

WALKERS in the Kincraig area are being asked to keep their eyes peeled by police after a big cat was spotted in local woods as the "Strathy" went to press.

AN Italian has been extradited to Scotland to face a charge of causing the death of a 63-year-old woman in a car crash near Kingussie.

THE threat of a month's closure hanging over an Aviemore bar for breaking licencing conditions has been lifted.

DAREDEVILS will have to keep their dodgem cars, water "skis" and bathtubs locked up for at least another year. Organisers of The Big Splash - based around self-confessed "idiots" launching themselves off a ramp into the River Spey at Aviemore - will not be going ahead later this summer.

Last year's event attracted over 1,000 spectators but organiser Mike Gale said he simply does not have the time or resources to put on this year's gathering. Participants take the plunge off a 25ft ramp into the Spey using a variety of contraptions which have also included snowboards, canoes and rollerskates in the past.

SUMMER visitors will be able to walk out of the £20 million Cairn Gorm mountain railway for the very first time as part of a trial, it was revealed yesterday (Tuesday).

DEER numbers in the Cairngorms National Park are believed to have fallen following one of the toughest winters on record.

CONTRACTORS TranServ Scotland have said they will not make the A86 a priority for upgrades despite the Spean Bridge-Kingussie section being identified as one of Scotland's most dangerous roads.

THERE was a huge rise in the number of reported avalanches in the Scottish mountains last winter which was one of the longest and coldest in living memory.

THE owners of a private care home in Grantown have said they are still committed to its redevelopment despite it going on the housing rental market this week.

"PEOPLE who look at us from the outside often don't understand how and why we live here," says Dalwhinnie resident Marilyn Mercer.

THE Highlands' fire service has issued its own emergency call for more volunteers to come forward to ease recruitment problems in Badenoch and Strathspey.

LOTTERY funding of £720,000 to repair 94 kilometres of eroded mountain paths in the Cairngorms has been welcomed.

THE head teacher of the strath's largest secondary school has hit out at the "terrible" conditions that his pupils will have to endure for up to four more years.

Mr John Tracey said he was "dismayed and disappointed" that Highland councillors had not brought forward badly needed work to replace the "huts" with new classroom accommodation at Kingussie High School.

HIGHLAND councillors have backed out of their earlier promise to build a new care home in Grantown.

AN Aviemore businessman has lined up plans for a 52-bedroom 'Travelodge'-style hotel for a prominent site labelled an "eyesore" at the south end of the village.

AN "adopted" Red Kite, which children at a Strathspey primary school had been tracking as part of a unique RSPB project, has perished after a suspected collision with a wind turbine.

A NETHY Bridge stalwart has formally opened a new path in his home village which has been named in his honour.