The Scottish Executive has abolished the controversial Skye Bridge tolls.
The government announced an end to the charges on Tuesday morning after it bought back the bridge from its private owners for £27m.
The deal to bring the tolls to an end was understood to have been brokered on Monday night and the last toll was paid as the announcement was made.
The charges had been in force since the span opened in October 1995 and were bitterly opposed by protesters.
The executive officially takes control of the bridge on 1 January from Skye Bridge Limited, which built the bridge under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deal with the government.
The exact figure the company will receive will not be known until then, when its final audited accounts are prepared.
However, according to the executive, if it had not bought out the bridge when it did, it would have had to provide a further £18m in subsidy and drivers would have had to pay a further £20m in tolls before the PFI contract ended in eight years time.
The 21 workers who collected the tolls from motorists will now lose their jobs.
Transport Minister Nicol Stephen announced an end to the tolls at about 0730 GMT at a press conference in Kyleakin, on the island side of the controversial crossing.
The Liberal Democrat MSP said: "This is a historic day for everyone on Skye...
[unquote: more at the site above]
_________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On this day in 1958 Aberdeen-born Denis Law became the youngest footballer to play for Scotland.
At the time playing for Huddersfield Town, he was 18 years and 7 months old when he played against Wales at Cardiff.
Scotland won 3-0.
Law went on to great things, scoring 236 goals as Manchester United's star striker, and in a bizarre irony, it was he who, wearing a Manchester City strip, scored the infamous goal that relegated United in 1974.
He has recently been nominated Scotland's best player of the last 50 years by the SFA.
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Today in 1541 saw the death of Margaret Tudor, English princess, sister of Henry VIII, wife of James IV, and mother of James V.
It was through Margaret, a paternal great-grandmother (through Henry, Lord Darnley), and a maternal great-grandmother (through Mary, Queen of Scots), that James VI based his claim to the throne of England following the death of Queen Elizabeth I. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On this day in 1687 the first public-hire sedan chairs became available in Edinburgh.
A sedan was an enclosed chair for one person, carried on poles by two men.
The very affluent already had their own ornate models, and this date marked the appearance of a modest fleet of six functional 'black cab'-like chairs.
Replacing cumbersome horse and carriage, sedans were a particularly suitable mode of transport in the narrow wynds and closes of Edinburgh's Old Town, though it can't have been much fun to work as a bearer, many of whom were Highlanders and wore tartan uniforms.
They reached the height of their popularity in the 18th century, when there were as many as 180 sedans for public hire in Edinburgh. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On this day in 1792 the famous general, Colin Campbell, Lord Clyde, was born in Glasgow.
Campbell was born Colin MacIver, and it is likely he assumed his mother's maiden name of Campbell when accepting his commission to help his army career.
Campbell fought in every major campaign the British army was involved in, from the Napoleonic War to the Crimea, and rose quickly through the ranks.
His crowning moment was as Commander-in-Chief of the British forces during the Indian Mutiny, 1857.
He was a shrewd and careful General, with a deep regard for the welfare of his men, and was particularly well regarded by the Highlanders under his command - it was these soldiers who held the famous 'Thin Red Line' during the Battle of Balaclava. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On this day in 1983 The Burrell Collection was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Pollok Park, Glasgow.
The £20m gallery contains more than 8,000 works of art collected by Glasgow shipping magnate, Sir William Burrell, who died in 1958.
After amassing a fortune thanks to shrewd business sense, Burrell dedicated his retirement to travelling the world procuring a huge, eclectic selection of high quality artworks.
In 1947 he bequeathed the collection to the people of Glasgow, but stipulated that it must be housed in a rural setting.
The difficulty of finding a location meant he never saw his dream realised.
It was not until the MacDonald family left their Pollok Estaste to the City of Glasgow in 1967 that a suitable site was found.
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This day in 1971 saw a huge gas explosion in Glasgow.
Just before 3pm, it ripped through the shopping precinct at Clarkston Toll on the city's south side.
21 people were killed and another 110 were injured.
A strong smell of gas had been reported the day before and repair work had been carried out.
On the afternoon of the blast, gas board inspectors and workers were checking the repair when a row of shops along Busby Road erupted with the force of a 300lb bomb.
Most of the victims were young female shop assistants and housewives doing their shopping. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On this day in 1871, Sir Roderick Murchison, the Scottish geologist, died.
Murchison began his working life as a soldier, only becoming interested in geology at the age of 32.
He wrote an important work, the "The Silurian System", in 1837, and went on to classify the Cambrian, Ordovician, Devonian and Permian eras.
He rose to become Director-General of the Geological Survey, the most important official post in British geology.
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Today in 1989 Ewan MacColl, the multi-talented, Scottish socialist, folk singer-songwriter and playwright, died.
George Bernard Shaw said of him in 1947, "Apart from myself, MacColl is the only man of genius writing for the theatre in Britain today".
MacColl recorded a huge volume of traditional Scottish and English folk songs, as well as creating a vast body of his own work, which ranged from satirical protest songs to tender love ballads, the latter most popularly renowned in his composition, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, written for his wife, Peggy Seeger (another folk singer), but made most famous by Roberta Flack.
_________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On October 23 1295 the "Auld Alliance" treaty was signed between John Balliol, King of Scots, and Philippe IV of France.
Promising mutual military help against the English, the treaty was renewed by Robert The Bruce in 1326.
It guaranteed response to English aggression against either party.
Primarily it was a military and diplomatic alliance but for most of the population the treaty brought tangible benefits, through pay as mercenaries in France's armies and trade links bringing the finest French wines to Scotland.
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Today in 1940 playwright, poet and jazz musician, Tom McGrath, was born.
He has been central to the avant-garde movement in Scottish arts for nearly 30 years.
An admirer of Edwin Morgan, he shows parallels in his poetry with that great verse-maker.
An accomplished jazz musician and skilled entertainer, he later became best known writing for the stage.
A number of famous plays include The Hardman (1977), co-written with Glasgow murderer, Jimmy Boyle.
He has also been Director of Glasgow's Third Eye Centre (1974-77), Associate Literary Director of Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum Theatre and is closely involved with the Scottish Arts Council. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On this day in 1796 the artist, David Roberts, was born in Edinburgh.
The son of a shoemaker, who began his career as an apprentice house painter, Roberts became a scene painter for circuses and for the theatre.
Having honed his skills, he became a Member of the Society of British Artists from 1824-1836.
By 1838 he was made a Royal Academician.
He also had an interest in the newly-'developed' art of photography, and the image is taken from one of the world's earliest known photographs. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On this day in 1960 Elvis Presley touched down at Prestwick airport, his only visit to Scotland.
He spent an hour at the airport on his way home to be demobbed from the army.
This was the only time The King set foot on British soil.
He was surrounded by ecstatic teenagers as he reputedly asked, "Where Am I?"
Despite huge worldwide fame, he never toured the globe to feel the adulation of his millions of fans.
There were rumours that one of the reasons for him staying in the United States was the residency status of his manager "Colonel" Tom Parker.
Parker was reputed to be an illegal alien and feared being unable to re-enter America if he left the country. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
Today in 1911 the Gaelic poet, Sorley MacLean, was born on the island of Raasay.
Maclean was a key force in the revitalising of the Gaelic language.
After studying at the University of Edinburgh, he took up teaching as a career and was for many years head teacher at Plockton High School.
His poetry brilliantly demonstrates the capacity of Gaelic to express themes ranging from passionate love to contemporary political and intellectual issues.
While he broke with the conventions for Gaelic poetry that still prevailed when he started writing in the 1930s, his writing very much belongs to the eloquent continuum of the Gaelic oral tradition.
Honoured with many major awards, including the Queen's Medal for Poetry, Sorley MacLean was the greatest Gaelic poet of the 20th century.
He died in 1996. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
October 27 1736 saw the birth of James MacPherson, Scottish poet.
Author of The Works of Ossian, Fingal and Temora, he gained international fame through his translations of early Gaelic poems.
However, although they caused a sensation in both Britain and Europe, where they were credited with influencing the European Romantic movement, MacPherson was also charged with composing the works himself.
This accusation gave rise to the so-called, "Ossian controversy".
The true story behind the poems has never been resolved. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On this day in 1740 James Boswell, the biographer, diarist and travel writer was born in Edinburgh.
James Boswell's name is rarely heard separately from that of Dr Samuel Johnson whose biography he wrote.
The two writers travelled through the west of Scotland in a journey famously recorded by Boswell in his published journals "A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland" and "The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides".
It was only in the mid-twentieth century, when many of his writings were re-discovered and published in full, that the extent of Boswell's talent came to be appreciated.
As a perceptive and witty recorder of the social life of the later part of the eighteenth century, he had few rivals. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On this day in 1959 Scottish aviator, Jim Mollison, died.
Mollison held many individual records for distance, endurance, and speed flying, and jointly set several others with his wife, the aviatrix Amy Johnson.
In 1932, he became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from East to West.
In the same year, his wife broke his record for the fastest flight from London to Cape Town.
With their dashing looks and daring exploits, they were the celebrity couple of their time. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
The novelist and politician Naomi Mitchison was born in Edinburgh on this day in 1897.
A prolific and popular writer, she wrote socially relevant fiction in genres as diverse as the historical novel and science fiction.
Her brother was JBS Haldane, the pioneering geneticist.
Politically active from her Carradale home on the Mull of Kintyre, she was a lifelong Socialist, Scottish Nationalist and campaigner for women's issues.
She died aged 101 in 1999.
Today in 1695, Scotland made a serious bid to enter the lucrative English sea-trading market.
The Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies issued a subscription list to stockholders in London.
Later known as The Darien Company, £300,000 sterling was quickly raised, but London merchants saw it as a threat to their own East India Company.
They put pressure on the King, and the English subscriptions were withdrawn at the behest of their government.
Within a year, thanks mainly to the enthusiasm of a misguided company director, Scottish subscriptions brought the capital back up to £400,000 sterling, a considerable proportion of Scotland's entire wealth.
This was the beginning of the ill-fated Darien affair:
All the capital was spent, as ships and many lives were lost in a series of disastrous expeditions to a malaria-infested colony on the Panama coast. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
Tom Johnston, one of Scotland's best known Secretaries of State, was born on this day in 1881.
Born in Kirkintilloch, Johnston began as a journalist who impressed his contemporaries by organising Keir Hardie's campaign for the rectorship of Glasgow University.
As Secretary of State, the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board was his most innovative achievement, and he handled rural Scotland's resistance and hesitation towards the project intelligently.
On leaving politics, he become the Hydro Board's first head in 1945.
Tom Johnston died in 1965. _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
On this day in 1698 the Scottish expedition to Darien landed at 'New Caledonia'.
The expedition left Leith on the 12th July 1698, heading for the isthmus of Panama.
The enterprise began in 1695 when the Scottish Parliament passed an Act for the establishment of the 'Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies'.
The Company was modelled on the English East India Company, and £400,000 capital was rapidly raised for the venture, a considerable proportion of Scotland's entire wealth.
Darien was chosen because of the ease of access to the Americas.
The expedition was doomed: malaria was rife on the tropical coast, and the Scots were short of supplies, having no success trading with the Spanish who saw them as a threat.
English colonies in the area also refused to help, and hostilities broke out with the Spanish.
The badly organised enterprise deteriorated rapidly and ended in disastrous failure with the loss of over 2,000 lives.
They abandoned Darien on 12 April 1700, and none of the ships returned to Scotland.
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Today in 2002 Lonnie Donegan, the legendary Scottish star of skiffle, died.
Arguably Britain's first pop superstar, he burst onto the scene in the mid-1950s with a distinctive guitar-led sound based loosely on American folk music.
Paul McCartney said of him: "When we were kids in Liverpool, the man who really started the craze for guitars was Lonnie Donegan.
He was the first person we had heard of from Britain to get to the coveted number one in the charts and we studied his records avidly.
We all bought guitars to be in a skiffle group.
He was the man". _________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
Today in 1965, the Scottish child pop star Lena Zavaroni was born.
She achieved national fame in 1974 when she was discovered on "Opportunity Knocks".
Zararoni's best known hit was a cover version of "Ma, He's Making Eyes at Me".
However, despite being a household name by the age of 10, she spent the second half of her life in obscurity.
She died tragically aged 35 from a chest infection, contracted after undergoing a partial lobotomy in an attempt to cure her of anorexia, an ailment she had suffered from since she was a young girl.
_________________ Yir nivir to auld tae learn! Wee John.
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