Fire service called as storms wreak havoc
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was called out twice last weekend to secure sections of Campbeltown's Christmas lights after they took a battering during Storms Malik and Corrie.
On Saturday morning, firefighters were asked to safely remove lights which hung over Longrow, near The Crew chip shop, that had become loose during the blustery weather.
They were called out again late on Sunday afternoon when the large ‘Christmas in Campbeltown' light at the opposite end of Longrow also became loose.
Some members of the community expressed shock that the lights were still in place more than a month after Christmas, but the Campbeltown Christmas Lights group explained that it had arranged for all the lights to be removed at the weekend but, due to the anticipated high winds, that had been postponed.
The group added that the delay in taking them down in the first place was due to the equipment required by the contractor responsible for removing the lights each year being unavailable until now.
On Monday, the process to remove the remaining lights began.
It wasn't only Kintyre that suffered as a result of the storms, which wreaked havoc across Scotland, with gusts of more than 90 miles per hour resulting in power cuts affecting more than 100,000 homes across the country.
In the Tayinloan area, a fire on a telegraph pole left 91 homes without power from 7.15pm on Saturday evening until around midday on Sunday.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks representatives told villagers that the extensive repair works required, combined with the impact of the ‘significant damage' across the country, was the reason for the slight delay in restoring power.
Further north, Oban lifeboat was called out in the stormy conditions to stand by as firefighters pumped water from a workboat taking on water at a jetty on Loch Creran.