AN eight-bedroom B&B establishment in the West Highlands burned to the ground late yesterday afternoon after it was struck by lightning.

The wooden Invergloy Halt Guest House, in Invergloy, by Loch Lochy in the Great Glen, was the victim of thunder and lightning storms which hit widespread parts of the Highlands.

Lightning cut electricity power supplies to thousands of consumers in the Great Glen, Skye, and Argyll.

At one stage, all power to the Outer Hebrides was off after lightning struck an above ground section of a seabed cable from Skye and a stand-by power station at Stornoway had to be fired up.