Organisers confirmed yesterday that a record crowd had savoured the myriad attractions of an Inverness trucks festival.
Giant vehicles from as far afield as the Borders and Glasgow converged on a field at Bogbain Farm on the south side of the Highland capital on Saturday and duly excited petrolheads and motoring aficionados.
The annual TruckNess extravaganza, which first rolled into town in 2013, gives participants the opportunity to show off their vehicles and compete for a raft of prizes.
The showpiece event, which attracts people of all ages, celebrates what the organisers described as “the fantastic contribution made by the men and women working in the haulage industry” in the north while also raising a significant sum for charity.
That amount is still to be totted up, but the group’s fundraising efforts have already garnered praise.
TruckNess organiser George MacLennan said: “It seems we are getting bigger and bigger.
“We had 2,000 wristbands and they were gone by one o’clock – you could probably double that, I would say.
“There was a half-mile queue to get in at one stage.”
The award-winning City of Inverness Youth Pipe Band brought a traditional musical flavour to the festival for the first time.
The event was largely bathed in glorious warm sunshine while many other parts of the Highlands suffered a thunderstorm and several hours of torrential rain.
Among the day’s big winners was David Mackintosh of the Highland Driving Agency and MD Fiddes Training, who was named Highland trucker of the year.
The organisers declared he “has diesel flowing through his veins,” having dedicated his working life to the haulage industry.
