SCOTS enjoyed a heady mix of sunshine and sugar over Easter weekend as the country enjoyed blue skies and warm temperatures.
While southern England and Wales were subjected to heavy rain and thunder yesterday, Easter revellers in Scotland tucked into chocolate eggs in brilliant sunshine and temperatures up to 17C.
In Glasgow, the warm weather was welcomed by more than a thousand bikers who turned out to deliver eggs and cuddly toys to young patients at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill.
The annual Easter event, now in its 35th year, saw bikers dressed as superheroes, Easter chicks, bunnies and even a knight in full armour pass through the city en route to the hospital.
Thousands lined the street to watch the parade, which was one of the largest in the event's history and aims to raise more than £20,000 for Yorkhill Children's Charity.
Kirsten Sinclair, head of fundraising for Yorkhill Children's Charity, said: "We are incredibly grateful to the biking community for their generous support over the past 35 years.
"Every penny donated makes a real and lasting difference and on this special anniversary year we hope to try and raise as much as possible for the incredibly brave and inspirational children who will be spending Easter at Yorkhill."
Fundraiser Aileen McConnell watched as the bikers made their way to the hospital.
She said: "It was a real spectacle and very moving. It is not just the sight but the smell and the sound which can be overwhelming."
The sunshine was also good news for skiers and snowboarders who turned out in T-shirts to make the most of the settled weather at Scotland's ski slopes.
Chairwoman of Ski Scotland, Heather Negus, added: "The settled weather and sunshine is finally allowing us to really enjoy the massive dumps of snow we got over the winter and even up until last weekend.
"The cold nights are firming up the snowpack which softens in the morning sun, giving great sliding conditions. Although April's hot sun has melted snow further east and on the lower slopes, we could well be skiing into May this year."
Sunny days like the ones experienced recently are known as bluebird days in the skiing community and attract large numbers. On Saturday - a day Ski Scotland described as a "real bluebird Easter Saturday" -CairnGorm Mountain's "Bag the Pipe" half-pipe competition attracted a big crowd, including Sochi Olympic snowboarder Ben Kilner.
Mr Kilner said: "It's been an epic day - awesome weather with a great turnout from the local talent pool. It's great to see such a good platform in the UK for youngsters to get involved. I just hope that everybody at the competition today had as much fun as me."
Met office reports claim the sunny weather is set to retreat today, with most of the country waking up to grey skies. It is expected to brighten later in the evening but the rest of week will bring more cloud and rain, except in the north west of Scotland which will continue to see warm sunshine.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article