ISLANDERS were given a free Hogmanay party after storms left them without power.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), battling the effects of Storm Dylan on the island of Jura, invited cut-off customers to go to the Jura Hotel for food and drink, which the company paid for.
The bill is reported to have come to more than £2000 as islanders gathered at the hotel for meals and drinks at New Year.
Cath McCallum, who runs the hotel, said the hotel served 120 meals.
She added: "The place was packed, it was a fabulous party.
"We ran out of everything, except drink.
"I have to say SSEN were marvellous and it's not often you say that about a power company."
The hotel itself, the main hotel on the island, opposite the Jura's famous distillery, was also without electricity from the network.
It relied on its generator but could not use fryers, microwaves, the electric oven or kettles, so its staff prepared food with an Aga and gas.
She added: "The company had contacted all customers who would be affected and told them to head down here to enjoy dinner and drinks on them.
"The bar is usually quiet on Hogmanay as people rend to see in The Bells at home. It's not normally a case of everyone being in the pub spending time together but it was this year."
A spokesman for SSEN said: “We would like to thank everyone for the community spirit they’ve shown while our engineers worked hard to repair the damage done by Storm Dylan.”
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 here