After balmy weeks in which daffodils bloomed and songbirds were baffled, winter finally arrived in earnest yesterday with people in many parts of Britain waking up to the first major snowfalls of the season. Severe weather warnings were in place for Scotland, Northern Ireland and most of northern England after nearly 48 hours of flurries brought with them winter scenes and perhaps premature predictions of a white Christmas.

Inverness have confirmed they will appeal against the red card issued to Greg Tansey during Saturday's Scottish Premier League game against Celtic. The midfielder was dismissed in the 36th minute at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium by referee Stevie O'Reilly following an aerial challenge with the Celtic striker Georgios Samaras.

Anthony Stokes admits Celtic cannot afford any more slip-ups as they prepare to host Dunfermline in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League on Wednesday and aim to haul themselves back into contention in the title race.

They say it's the midges and the rain that keep summer visitors away from the Highlands. Bring them on, say I. Well, perhaps not the midges, though they must be one of the reasons why the place swarms with swifts and swallows, curling and screaming across the pasture. But the rain is superb. From steep slopes of birch and bracken, gulley and rock, it conjures up an extraordinary number of waterfalls. Clefts that you usually read as no more than dark creases in the terrain foam with white water, in such a hurry to get down from the hill that it drowns all other noises in its thunderous fall.

"The ride stops at Culloden? No way. I don't think so." So speaks Bonnie Prince Charlie as reimagined by the intelligent young company nabokov and E V Crowe.

Flooding brought parts of Scotland to a standstill yesterday while householders in the North-east of England were spared as heavy rains abated.

Thrill-seekers were warned against "tombstoning" after a man leaping off a bridge broke his ankles and nearly drowned.

The British soldier who went missing from a base in Helmand may have been stripped naked before his death. His body, which was found in a river, was badly bruised and there were gunshot wounds to the head.

A British soldier shot dead in southern Afghanistan loved his children "with all his heart and soul", his wife has said.

Doug Lang was one of the leading players in an intensely creative period of Scottish climbing during the 1960s and 1970s.

Heathland fires were still raging across parts of the Scottish Highlands, Ireland and England yesterday after an extended dry spell.

Heathland fires were still raging across parts of the Scottish Highlands, Ireland and north west England today after the record-breaking dry spell.

Britain's millions of hayfever sufferers have a new helping hand: the Met Office has introduced daily pollen forecasts on its website.