Marauding deer are causing chaos in a Highland village with two hinds even trying to enter a local shop this week.
A shop worker who was previously charged by a stag in the middle of the night has called for something to be done about the problem.
Sue Hindmarch, manager at Costcutter, Lochinver, said: “Everybody is saying that something needs to be done about it. We need a fence around the village to keep them out.”
She added: “A couple of days ago I went to the back of the shop and there were two hinds with their heads inside the door. Despite me shouting at them they wouldn’t walk away. They just took a few steps and looked at me funny.
“Eventually they wandered away.”
But she had a “terrifying” experience three years ago when she walked home from work at around half past midnight.
“I was on my way home from work when I saw a stag walking down the road towards me. I wasn’t worried at first. Then it started trotting towards me. I thought it would be fine because there was a cattle grid between us but then it started charging and leapt the fence beside the cattle grid.
“There was an empty house nearby and I ran into the shed. It was terrifying. It was waiting at the door for me, I could hear it stamping its feet. After about half an hour it eventually left and I was able to go home.
“I heard that the same stag had already chased someone at night through the village.
“Another time a stag was seen on the road outside the store and attached to its antlers was a washing line with a metal pole attached to it and it was swinging it about.
“Some people are terrified to go out because of the amount of deer roaming the village.”
Deer can regularly be spotted wondering about outside the Costcutter store.
Shop worker Kirsty Matheson said: “It happens quite a lot but this day I went out the back door and one was standing looking at me. I went to get my camera to take a picture and when I got back it was looking at me as if to say, ‘where did you go?’
“They are quite often outside the front, you have to walk past them to get in the shop.
“They are a menace, they destroy plants in people’s gardens and it is a worry because you don’t always know if they are friendly or not.”