Police have named a teenage girl who died after being hit by a car on a notoriously dangerous road.
Hollie Mackay, 15, was struck on the A9 at Invergordon in the Highlands yesterday.
The girl, who lived locally, was taken to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness with serious injuries and later died.
The accident happened north of the Shandwick Inn at Kildary at about 5.30pm.
The road was closed in both directions while officers investigated the scene. Police have appealed for any witnesses to contact them on 101.
The death is the latest in a spate of accidents on the road in recent years.
In July, a crash involving two cars killed three people near Kingussie in the Highlands.
The Scottish Government has pledged to upgrade the A9 - which is the main road to the Highlands - to a dual carriageway by 2025, with a £3 billion project to convert 80 miles of the road.
Plans to install average speed cameras along the road from Dunblane to Inverness, at a cost of £2.5 million, have also been announced and they are expected to be fully operational by next summer.
The acting headteacher of Invergordon Academy paid tribute to the "popular and talented" Secondary 4 pupil who was returning home after taking part in an after-school drama session when she was hit by a car.
Alison Drew said: "Hollie was a popular and thoughtful member of our close-knit school community.
"She was a talented musician, a keen skier and drama was one of her real passions.
"She was a key player in the Invergordon Youth Theatre and also attended drama activities at Eden Court.
"Hollie represented the school in plays, musical performances, sports and other events.
"She had taken part in an after-school drama session immediately before the accident.
"She was an outstanding pupil, who was popular with her friends and highly regarded by school staff.
"She will be greatly missed by all of us. Our thoughts are with her family and friends."
Special assemblies were held this morning and rooms were set aside for pupils to receive counselling and support.
The school said that staff and volunteers are available to support pupils.
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