Rules from a bygone age:

Review of decades-old laws covering north and north-east bombing ranges

Any animal straying on to a north or north-east bombing range can be forfeited to the king – and humans doing the same face a £5 fine.

They are rules from a bygone age created to secure the area’s military estates, and are still in force to this day.

But now defence chiefs are carrying out a painstaking review of all of the country’s military bylaws.

It will include those covering Fort George near Inverness, the bombing and firing ranges at Tain, Cape Wrath and Uist, and Blackdog rifle range in the north-east.

Some of the rules provide useful advice to anyone who encounters an unexploded bomb.

Written in 1933, the bylaw for the 2,400acre CapeWrath site, in Sutherland, states: “Persons are warned of the danger of touching live shell.

“Any person finding any shell should on no account touch it, but should mark its position and inform the nearest police officer.”

Fishermen operating in the Moray Firth area are similarly warned in the 1940 bylaw set out for the Fort George range.

“Any person who when trawling, dredging, or in any manner whatever, shall come into possession of any such shot, shell or other projectile, or any portion thereof, within either of the sea areas, shall not retain it, but shall immediately return it in its then condition, and without tampering with it, into the water,” it states.

All the bylaws include the same warning, taken from the legislation of the time, which sets out the penalty for those who contravene the rules.

“If any person commits an offence against any bylaw under this Act, he shall be liable on conviction before a Court of Summary, Jurisdiction of a fine not exceeding FIVE POUNDS, and may be removed by any constable or officer authorised in manner provided by the bylaw from the area . . . ” they state.

The statement continues: “. . . and any vehicle, animal, vessel or thing found in the area in contravention of any bylaw may be removed by any constable or such officer as aforesaid and, on due proof of such contravention, be declared by a Court of Summary Jurisdiction to be forfeited to His Majesty.”

In 2008, the maximum fine was increased from £5 to £500.

The bylaws covering the Butec torpedo testing site, in the Sound of Raasay, have already been reviewed and changed last month to pave the way for a controversial expansion of the site.

The others are due to be changed as part of a process which has already been under way for four years.

Several bylaws in the north and north-east have already lapsed – including those which covered former ranges at Nairn, Lybster, and Ness of Sound in Shetland.