Scottish

A further five of Saturday’s SPFL fixtures have been postponed, including Greenock Morton v Dunfermline Athletic and Queen’s Park v St Johnstone in the Championship.

Frozen pitches have caused the cancellation of the two second-tier games.

Alloa Athletic v Montrose (frozen pitch) and Peterhead v Hamilton Academical (waterlogged pitch) in League 1 are off and, in League 2, frozen pitches mean Dumbarton v Clyde and East Kilbride v Spartans will also be rearranged.

Annan Athletic’s home game against Elgin City in League 2 was called off after a Friday pitch inspection revealed another frozen surface.

People across Scotland are being warned to prepare for more snow and ice this weekend.

A HOTEL owned by a major British sports star has closed ahead of a huge transformation.

Three-time tennis Grand Slam winner Andy Murray has closed the hotel he owns, just three miles from his hometown of Dunblane, in Scotland.

The closure comes ahead of a major transformation to the hotel, which sits on a Victorian country estate sprawling over 34 acres with its own chapel and small loch.

Over the coming months, the hotel will remain closed while a new 80-seat restaurant with a ‘living’ roof covered in plants is built.

A smaller, fine dining restaurant will be added to the hotel as well.

The current restaurant, The Glasshouse, will be transformed into an afternoon tea and event space.

Read more on travel inspo

CHEAP BREAKS

UK’s best 100 cheap stays – our pick of the top hotels, holiday parks and pubs

ALL IN

I found the best value all inclusive London hotel… just £55pp with free food & booze

As for accommodation, three bedrooms will be added and there will be a new wellness cottage too.

Back in 2023, planning permission was also granted for nine new cabins to be built in the woodland, though whether these are going ahead is unclear.

The hotel is then expected to reopen in May of this year.

The tennis player and his wife, Kim, purchased the mansion back in 2013 for a rumoured £1.8million.

Via the hotel’s Instagram account, Cromlix said: “Our team is all set to pack away the house, but we’re already counting down to 15th May when we’ll welcome you back.

“While our doors are closed, our team is still here and ready to take your bookings for spring and beyond.”

Inside the hotel, guests will find a billiards room with vaulted wooden ceilings adding to The Traitors feel of the mansion.

Guests can also request in-room spa treatments such as a back, neck and shoulder massage from £80 or a full body massage from £95.

In the grounds, visitors will be able to spot beehives, chickens, deer and red squirrels across a number of woodland trails.

In classic Murray style, the hotel of course has outdoor tennis courts where guests can have private coaching sessions.

There are a number of different rooms in the hotel including ‘Turret Suites’ – though, they aren’t as small as The Traitors turret.

Inside the rooms, visitors will find statement furniture, country house patterns and botanical features.

In total there are 10 bedrooms and five suites, and they have different views, including of the garden and woodland.

Though, if you fancy something a little more private then you can book The Laurel Gate Lodge.

Inside there is a small turret, kitchen, living room, king-size bedroom and a family bathroom with a walk-in shower and separate bath.

If you do want to bring your kids, there is a pull-out sofa bed too.

Though it isn’t cheap, as it costs from £555 to stay in the lodge.

Prices for rooms and suites in the main building vary from around £300 a night.

For wider exploring, the hotel is sat between Glasgow and Edinburgh, with both cities just an hour away.

The mansion was previously passed down generations of the Drummond family.

In that time it has even survived a fire in 1878 and then later was transformed from a house into a hotel.

In other hotel news, these are 12 of our favourite UK hotels to visit this year – from cosy farm retreats to £55 all-inclusives in London.

Plus, Britain’s best hotels for 2026 have been named from seaside pubs to island B&Bs.

Ulva House is a building site. There are workmen up ladders, hammering, plastering, but I leave my muddy walking boots by the door. There’s no central heating or hot water and Banjo Beale and his husband, Ro, have been camping out here for weeks, but he greets me, dazzlingly debonair, in a burnt orange beanie and fabulous Moroccan rug coat.

The 2022 winner of the BBC’s Interior Design Masters, who went on to front his own makeover show Designing the Hebrides, Banjo’s vibe is more exuberant Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen than quizzical Kevin McCloud. His latest project with Ro, the transformation of a derelict mansion on the small Hebridean island of Ulva into a boutique hotel, is the subject of a new six-part series, airing on BBC Scotland. I’m here for a preview of the finished rooms.

At just 7.5 miles long by 2.5 wide, Ulva, across a narrow strait from the Isle of Mull, was privately owned until recently. When it went on the market in 2018, a community buyout was orchestrated with the aim of attracting people back to Ulva and breathing new life into the island.

The first national census in 1841 recorded a population of 570 on the island, but largely owing to the brutal evictions of the Highland Clearances (when lairds forced crofting tenants off the land, replacing them with sheep), by 2015 there were just three adults and two children living here.

Community buyouts are becoming more common across Scotland, following the example of islands such as Eigg, empowering locals to take control of their futures and save local businesses. Numbers on Ulva have since swelled to 16 – the long-term target is 50 – after an advert was posted inviting applications for settlement here. Now, two Aussies (Banjo and Ro) and their wolfhound/greyhound cross, Grampa, are shining an even brighter spotlight on this remote island and helping to turn its fortunes around.

There has been a house here, once the seat of Clan Macquarie, since the 17th or 18th century. The original property was replaced by a Regency-style mansion at the beginning of the 19th century and, after a fire in the 1950s, it was rebuilt on the same footprint. The elegant, Grade B-listed, modernist mansion (with a nod to Arts and Crafts and Regency-influenced interiors) “has good bones” Banjo tells me, but it was derelict when they first stumbled upon it – and decided to plunge their savings into converting it into a hotel. They have secured a rent and repair lease and part of the profits will be ploughed back into the community. “The good thing about Ulva being community owned,” Banjo explains, “is we’re all in this together.”

The pair first washed up in the Hebrides because Ro had a dream of becoming a cheesemaker and they had heard about Sgriob-ruadh (pronounced skrib-rooa), the dairy farm turned award-winning artisan cheesemaker on Mull. Ro learned how to make cheese while Banjo dipped his toe into interior design, doing up the striking Glass Barn cafe with its owner, Chris Reade; rummaging through the old farm buildings for things he could use – and sparking a new passion.

In the entrance hall of Ulva House, and curving up the grand staircase, a romantic mural features palm trees against a mountainous landscape, painted by the artist Melissa Wickham, while a profusion of towering pot plants is scattered around a bamboo-clad reception desk.

“Ro loves tropical stuff,” Banjo smiles. “I’m more classical. The project is a coming together of our styles. We want it to feel bohemian, whimsical.”

I follow him into the Library Bar. “I think I am a frustrated antiques dealer,” he admits as I admire the giant zinc and marble-top bar. “I’ve been collecting pieces for years; most of it’s in storage in a huge shed at the cheese farm.”

Belgium and France are his main hunting grounds; he found the Parisian pitch pine bar near Lyon, a steal at just £1,500. How they got it over from Mull on the tiny passenger ferry is another story. “It had to straddle the boat, then we used a horse float [horse trailer] to get it from the jetty (there are no cars on Ulva) and took the windows out to get it in.”

The library is opulent. You can imagine nursing a negroni and thumbing through the pages of some of the old books. Above the fireplace are framed plans Banjo found in a salvage yard, the date 1827, and signed “Macquarie”. Another Macquarie, he tells me, Major General Lachlan Macquarie (1762-1824), who was born on Ulva, became governor of New South Wales.

The light-infused Orangery or drawing room is a glorious space peppered with more pot plants, distressed urns, vintage rattan chairs, and unframed oils on the walls. The peeling pale green paint has been painstakingly preserved with a layer of varnish, a Miss Havisham-esque process he explains is called “arrested decay”.

When it opens later in the year, the seven-bedroom hotel will be open seasonally, with Ro doing the cooking. Until then, visitors to the island can take their pick between two off-grid bothies and a revamped hostel. Banjo’s makeover of Cragaig Bothy for the community featured in an episode of Designing the Hebrides. In fact, the hotel is his third project on Ulva. Last summer, he and Ro, along with a young farmer, charcuterie-maker and baker, Sam, also took on the lease of The Boathouse, the white waterfront restaurant by the jetty.

It became an instant hit, with people flocking over from Mull for platters of langoustine and lobster perched at picnic tables near the rocks, and meandering along the waymarked walking trails that crisscross the island.

I’m staying in Bearnus Bothy for the weekend, a five-mile hike from the jetty along a coastal track. It’s run by Andy and Yvette Primrose, who live off-grid on the neighbouring island of Gometra – an island off an island off an island. The couple are climbers – Yvette has tackled the north side of Everest and her book Expedition from the Backdoor is the tale of her 660-mile journey on foot from Shropshire to Knoydart, on the west coast of Scotland. They also run the island’s hostel.

The pretty, whitewashed bothy above the beach is a welcome sight after a squally walk – as is the basket full of logs and the pulley above the stove for drying wet clothes. There are just two rooms, a bedroom with old-fashioned twin beds topped with woollen blankets and a kitchen/diner, a bathroom with flushing toilet and Belfast sink in between. There’s also a tin bath, which can be filled with water heated on the wood-burning stove.

In front of the fire are two rocking chairs with tartan blankets. Lighting is by candles, tealights and battery-operated fairy lights. There are crocs and wellies by the door. A bookcase is stacked with novels, walking and wildlife guides and games to while away long evenings.

Flicking through the visitor book by candlelight, I read about Swallows and Amazons-style family adventures, swimming from the beach below the bothy, sailing trips and picnics. Inspired, I hike over to Gometra, accessed at low tide over the sand, at high tide over a footbridge, scouring the shoreline with binoculars and spotting seals basking on rocks and a family of otters playing in the water. Soaring high above is a hen harrier. There’s not another soul around.

Solitary rambles might soon be a thing of the past, of course, now that the island is being “re-peopled”. And, with a hotel opening on the horizon, the future for Ulva is starting to look brighter and a little busier.

Accommodation was provided by Bearnus Bothy (airbnb.co.uk), minimum two-night stay from £121. CalMac (calmac.co.uk) ferries sail from Lochaline on the Scottish mainland to Fishnish on Mull, from £6.50 return for foot passengers, £25.60 for a car. The Ulva foot passenger ferry costs £8 return for adults, £4 for children.

Motherwell have arguably been the best team to watch in the Premiership this season and are unquestionably the team punching most above their weight in Scotland’s top flight.

Manager Jens Berthel Askou has implemented an eye-catching possession-based style since joining in the summer, a feat several coaches have failed to do with far bigger budgets.

Elliot Watt has been a revelation in midfield, Elijah Just has slotted in seamlessly having worked under Askou previously at Danish club Horsens, while only Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland has scored more goals in the Premiership than Tawanda Maswanhise this season.

It is at the back though that perhaps the most impressive aspect of Askou’s set-up has been.

Motherwell are unbeaten in their past 10 league outings and haven’t conceded in over a month with six straight clean sheets.

They have shipped just 15 goals in the league all season, a record bettered only by Celtic and Hearts (both 14).

Research from my learned colleague Nick McPheat shows Motherwell are averaging their best defensive record in a top-flight campaign – 0.83 goals conceded per match – since the 1931–32 season, when they won the title.

Attacks win matches, but defences win titles. A festive omen of cheer for the Steelmen and Askou before they face Rangers at Ibrox.

Given Rangers’ struggles in attacking areas this term, don’t be surprised if Motherwell’s superb run continues into 2026.

It’s opening night at Scotland’s newest community pub, Oakbank Inn, which sits on the Holy Loch in the village of Sandbank, Argyll. It’s a clear, cold night, and the inn couldn’t look more welcoming: a cosy glow from within the historic building, the Cowal hills beyond. The Christmas lights are twinkling, the glasses are charged and there’s a palpable sense of goodwill, cheer, and plenty of pride in the air. By 6pm, it’s buzzing. Locals are already propping up the bar as a stylish woman sweeps in and bags the last table. She is Debbie Rycroft, a local haberdasher. “A pint in my own local,” she smiles happily, relishing a toast with her husband and equally dapper 19-year-old son.

First-night hiccups are limited to a wonky nozzle and a brief worry about a small radiator leak. “How many people to fix a heater?” quips someone as a line of concerned faces survey the scene. Almost immediately, a punter walks in with a radiator key. All sorted. Someone orders a Guinness; the bartender pulls it off. A two-part pour, pitchblack perfection with a balanced, creamy top. Good things come to those who wait? Well, this one’s been three years in the making.

The Oakbank, a landmark building at the heart of Sandbank for the last 160 years, closed at the end of 2022, like so many businesses that struggled in the wake of the Covid pandemic. Next came the closure of the nearby Holy Loch inn. The village was left without a pub – a huge loss for a rural community.

A group of locals got together in early 2023, formed a committee, chaired by Sue McKillop, and began the long slog to buy the Oakbank. “It’s been an uphill struggle,” says Ian MacNaughton, another founding committee member. “I just didn’t think the hill would be so steep!” Now retired, MacNaughton remembers sneaking into the Oakbank for a pint, aged 16. These days he’s learning about compliance laws. “We must do everything right.”

After an initial rejection, their persistence finally paid off last December with the award of a Scottish Land grant just shy of £150,000, covering most of the purchase price. In January, McKillop advertised shares, raising more than £23,000 and an “inspiring amount of enthusiasm” from locals. By April this year, they had the keys. It’s been nonstop ever since up until opening night last Saturday, she says.

While the shares didn’t reach the £90,000 target, people have contributed “thousands of volunteer hours” to get the place ready, Dawn Petherick tells me. They shifted and updated the bar, now an airy sky blue, while the old wood burner’s still there but “needing work”. Another one for the list. And Petherick’s list is long. She is Oakbank’s development officer, a fixed-term post funded by the initial grant, and, like everyone else involved, she’s been busy all year.

The Oakbank has been running pop-ups, workshops and charity mornings during the refurbishment. More events are being added all the time. “Whatever the community wants – knitting groups, book clubs, exhibitions, ‘sober nights’ – it should be a hub more than a pub,” says Petherick. “Somewhere to alleviate social isolation.”

And that is needed more than ever. Yet another local pub, the Strone Inn across the bay, is set to close at the end of the year. Like many local business owners, Stephen Mitchell is supportive of the Oakbank project. “Fair play to them,” he says. “It’s taken them three years, so it’s a real result.” But, he warns, “the hard work starts now as things are really tough”.

McKillop agrees. “It’s exciting but a wee bit scary,” she says. “We are under no illusions as to the challenges that lie ahead. Like any pub venue, we will need to keep innovating in order to survive.” But she can take comfort from recent figures; community pubs are doing well. According to the charity Plunkett UK, community-owned businesses are “highly resilient”, with a five-year survival rate of 98%.

“We’re delighted that the Oakbank Community Inn is opening under community ownership,” says James Alcock, Plunkett UK’s chief executive. “We see time and again how saving local assets like village pubs protects vital services and social spaces, helping to reduce isolation and strengthen communities.”

Future plans include refurbishing accommodation upstairs, a studio/gallery space in the adjoining cottage and renovating the commercial kitchen. In a nice piece of alchemy, the pub sits opposite Sandbank’s community-owned garden, so its polytunnels and raised beds will be nurturing hyper-local vegetables destined for that kitchen.

But the best thing about the Oakbank is the bit you see last. At the back of the bar, big glass doors offer views across the Holy Loch. It’s inaccessible now, but outside the doors, a grassy verge leads to the Holy Loch marina below. It has its own regulars hauling out on the slipway – giant Atlantic grey seals. With neighbours like that, you can see why McKillop has ambitious plans. “We’re going to rebuild the rotten deck and make a bridge to connect to the marina,” she says.

That should please boat-owners Tony, Rob and Alan, enjoying a pint beside the bar. “Sailors don’t like going places where you can’t go to a pub,” says Rob. “And Sandbank’s had absolutely nothing to offer.”

“Hang on,” offers Tony. “It’s got a lot of history.”

But Rob’s having none of it. “You can’t drink a pint of history.”

Collum agreed with the VAR decision not to award a penalty against Fernandez in Rangers’ 2-2 draw with Dundee United at Tannadice. On that occasion, the ball appeared to clip the defender’s arm as it dropped from a United throw-in.

The head of refereeing said the incident was “not punishable in any shape or form” and also agreed with the awarding of a late Rangers penalty, which Nedim Bajrami converted after a foul by Will Ferry on Max Aarons.

Collum similarly backed the decision not to award a spot-kick against Hearts’ Harry Milne as he blocked a Kyrell Wilson shot on the line as hosts Falkirk attacked. Collum said it was “one million per cent not a penalty kick” because Milne had his arm tucked in against his body.

Celtic defender Liam Scales had a penalty awarded against him for handball in his side’s 2-1 win at Hibernian and Collum again agreed, saying: “It’s the right decision.”

Hearts claimed unsuccessfully for a spot-kick in their 1-1 draw at home to Kilmarnock after Dominic Thompson appeared to head the ball on to his hand. Collum again backed his officials’ decision.

Two incidents during Rangers’ 3-0 win at Kilmarnock were also given Collum’s approval.

Goalkeeper Jack Butland’s challenge on Killie’s Bruce Anderson outside the box was not judged to have merited a red card, and an off-the-ball pull by Mohamed Diomande on David Watson on the edge of the box also went unpunished. Collum believes both incidents were judged correctly.