A memorial at a top secret World War Two training area in the Highlands has been given a revamp.

The cairn at Kylesku on Loch Cairnbawn, north of Ullapool, remembers 40 men of XII Submarine Flotilla who lost their lives either in training or while on frontline operations.

The submariners and divers were specialists in the use of mini, also known as midget, submarines called X-Craft and Chariots.

The memorial also recalls one of the flotilla's most dangerous operations, an attack on the German warship Tirpitz in a Norwegian fjord in September 1943.

Kylesku and the surrounding area was used for training between 1942 and 1945.

It was a restricted area and many of the operations the training was used for remained a secret until after the end of the war.

Loch Striven in Argyll and Bute was also used for X-Craft training.

The memorial cairn close to Kylesku Bridge, itself a landmark on the North Coast 500 tourist route, was installed in 1993.

But many of the names on its bronze plaque had become illegible due to exposure to bad weather over the last 30 years.

Over the last year, a small project team led by retired Royal Navy commander Tim Honnor raised £15,000 in donations to restore the memorial.

The cairn's mortar has been repointed and the worn bronze has been replaced by new cast made by the Nairn-based fine art foundry Black Isle Bronze.

New information boards made in Dumfries have been installed nearby, and the area tidied up by Reay Estate.

A ceremony to mark the completed refurbishment was held on Sunday.

Cdr Honnor said the site could become a focal point for people with links to XII Submarine Flotilla.

He said: "I hope that it will become a pilgrimage for relatives of those who are named on the roll of honour, and that it will bring their stories to a wider public."

In 1943, the Tirpitz was the most heavily-armed warship in the world, said Cdr Honnor.

From Norway it attacked convoys of Allied shipping carrying weapons and supplies to Russia to help it fight Nazi forces on the war's eastern front.

Several attempts were made to sink Tirpitz.

From Kylesku six X-Craft were towed by larger submarines 1,000 miles to northern Norway.

Crew were onboard the X-Craft for the hazardous days-long passage.

Cdr Honnor said: "That must have been sheer hell.

"They were pitching all over the place, the air inside was disgusting and they could not have slept.

"They were being towed like a kite underwater."

The crews were changed over for the attack, with three crewmen and a diver in each craft.

After losses along the way, only two X-Craft made it underneath Tirpitz to lay explosive charges.

The Royal Navy crews were forced to abandon their submarines and were captured by the Germans.

They were brought on board Tirpitz.

Cdr Honnor said: "There is a story about one of them who was asked why he kept looking at his watch.

"He knew when the charges would go."

Tirpitz was badly damaged by the explosives.

Cdr Honnor said an admiral, grudgingly impressed by their bravery, prevented the captured crew from being shot and ordered that they be held as prisoners of war.

Donald Cameron, from Carluke, South Lanarkshire, was among those later recognised for their bravery. He was awarded the Victoria Cross.

A soon-to-be-retired CalMac ferry has been redeployed to CalMac's busy Arran route after the long-awaited return of the main vessel was hit by a new problem.

MV Hebridean Isles will start sailing to Brodick on the island from Thursday.

The main Arran ferry MV Caledonian Isles had been due to return this week after eight months of repairs, but a new gearbox fault was detected on Sunday.

Ferry users can currently only travel from Arran to the mainland via Troon on a chartered catamaran, or on a small ferry to Claonaig on the Kintyre peninsula.

MV Hebridean Isles, launched 39 years ago, is due to be retired in November because of the amount of work required to extend its service life any further.

It will sail from Troon on Thursday and Friday because high winds are forecast, but will operate out of Ardrossan once the weather conditions ease.

The ship had been recently serving the Islay route, but MV Lord of the Isles will provide backfill. Sailings to Lochboisdale on South Uist will be cancelled as a result.

A CalMac spokeswoman said: "Cancelling any sailing is always a last resort and we apologise to the South Uist community for the disruption that this will cause."

The ferry operator said it would try to restore the Lochboisdale service as soon as possible.

MV Caledonian Isles has been out of action since February when annual maintenance inspections revealed serious corrosion.

All of its engines had to be removed while the damaged steelwork was replaced at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Merseyside.

It had just returned to Scotland and had completed berthing trials on Sunday when metal fragments were discovered in a filter in the port gearbox.

The ferry is now expected to be out of action for at least a week while investigation and repair work takes place.

Another ferry, MV Isle of Arran, had been operating from Ardrossan while Caledonian Isles was away, but it was booked in for annual maintenance from Wednesday which could not be delayed.

CalMac has been plagued by soaring maintenance bills and breakdowns in recent years with many of its ships well beyond their expected service life.

On Tuesday in the Scottish Parliament, Labour's Katy Clark said she had been contacted by people worried about hospital appointments and a farmer unable to get stock to market.

She asked the transport secretary if she agreed "the ferry crisis is becoming a national emergency".

Fiona Hyslop said she was concerned about the latest breakdown, and had impressed on CalMac the need for "resilience cover" for Arran.

The situation should begin to ease later this year when the long-delayed Glen Sannox enters service on the Arran route.

The first of four new large ferries being built in Turkey will also enter service next year, along with Glen Rosa, the sister ship of Glen Sannox, which is also earmarked for the Arran crossing.

Harland and Wolff, the Belfast-based shipbuilder which built the Titanic, has formally entered administration for the second time in five years.

Last week the company’s board had warned that the move was inevitable.

The administration process is confined to the holding company, Harland & Wolff Group Holdings plc, with the operational companies which run the yards continuing to trade.

Its main yard is in Belfast with other operation at Appledore in England and Methil and Arnish in Scotland.

The company’s executive chairman, Russell Downs, is optimistic that a new owner or owners will be found for the yards.

Gavin Park and Matt Cowlishaw of Teneo Financial Advisory have been appointed as joint administrators.

The holding company currently has 59 employees.

In a statement Harland and Wolff said: "The Administrators will unfortunately be required to reduce the headcount upon appointment.

"A number of employees will be retained to provide certain required services to the operational companies under a transitional services agreement with the Administrators."

The company has also restated that the administration process means that shareholders in Harland and Wolff will see the value of their investment wiped out.

Famous for building the Titanic, the Belfast shipyard was founded in 1861 by Yorkshireman Edward Harland and his German business partner, Gustav Wolff.

By the early 20th Century, Harland and Wolff dominated global shipbuilding and had become the most prolific builder of ocean liners in the world.

Harland and Wolff was bought out of administration in 2019.

Its then Norwegian owners had withdrawn support and the business fell into insolvency, having not built a ship in a generation.

The new owner, Infrastrata, was a small London-based energy firm which did not have significant experience in marine engineering.

Infrastrata later changed its name to Harland and Wolff and in 2022 won a major Royal Navy contract as part of a consortium led by Navantia, Spain’s state-owned shipbuilder.

However financial losses mounted as it scaled up its operations.

The 2021 accounts, which covered a 17-month period, showed a loss of more than £25m.

The audited annual accounts for 2022 showed turnover of £28m and a loss of about £70m with the auditor’s opinion of "material uncertainty" about the firm’s ability to continue as a going concern.

Unaudited accounts for 2023 saw a loss of £43m.

The company was increasingly reliant on high-interest borrowings from a specialist US lender, Riverstone.

It was also pinning its hopes on getting government loan guarantee that would allow refinancing with more conventional lenders.

In July the new government confirmed there would be no support as there was "a very substantial risk that taxpayer money would be lost".

Russell Downs, a restructuring expert, was parachuted in to act as executive chairman and began a strategic review of the business along with advisors from Rothschild bank.

CalMac has been forced into making temporary changes to some of its services due to ongoing disruption caused by repairs to one of its ferries.

MV Caledonian Isles was due to return to its Arran route on 23 September after eight months of maintenance work.

That was delayed at the last minute when a new gearbox fault was detected and, in a new update, the ferry operator said repairs could take another 10 days.

CalMac said a service to and from South Uist, which has been cancelled for a week, would be restored - but with a knock-on effect for some sailings to Mull.

The announcement comes as it emerged the delivery of the first of four new ferries being built in Turkey has been further delayed.

MV Isle of Islay had been expected to be delivered in mid October, but that date has been pushed back to mid February after previously being delayed until the end of this year.

Maritime infrastructure company CMAL has confirmed the new delay in a letter to Holyrood's net zero and transport committee., external

The new temporary service changes involve:

CalMac warned of the potential for disruption and asked customers to check timetables, external.

A spokeswoman said: "We are very sorry for this further disruption, and we are extremely grateful to customers for their patience and understanding when their bookings had to be moved.

"Our teams are working closely with external contractors to ensure that MV Caledonian Isles can return to usual service as quickly as possible."

CalMac has faced challenges over a number of years due to breakdowns affecting its ageing fleet.

Projects to build new ferries have also been hit by delays.

They include Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa which were originally due for delivery in 2018 but have faced repeated design and construction challenges.

Glen Sannox is currently undergoing its final owner's acceptance trials with CMAL and on Tuesday berthed at Brodick on Arran, which will be its main destination.

Following final regulator approval it is expected to handed over by the Ferguson shipyard within a fortnight but CalMac will carry out several weeks of crew familiarisation before the ship carries its first passengers.

Final acceptance sea trials for the new CalMac ferry Glen Sannox have been paused until next week, after a false fire alert led to a loss of power at sea earlier this week.

A fire detector was inadvertently triggered on Wednesday, resulting in an electrical blackout and the subsequent shutdown of the engine systems.

The engines were later restarted and the ferry returned to Greenock under its own power, escorted by two tugs as a precaution.

Shipbuilder Ferguson Marine had hoped to resume the sea trials on Friday, but these have now been put back while fire alarms and other systems are tested.

The dual-fuel ship - the second largest and most complex ever built for the CalMac fleet - is now complete, with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) systems fully commissioned.

Owner's acceptance trials involving ferries procurement body CMAL, which leases vessels to CalMac, began on Monday.

The ship was put through its paces, accelerating to top speed and operating on both conventional marine gas oil and LNG.

During a test of the two anchors a fault was identified with one of them, but it was decided to continue with the trials.

On Tuesday, the ship was greeted by enthusiastic onlookers when it successfully completed a berthing test at Brodick on Arran, which will be its main destination when it enters service.

But on Wednesday morning, while sailing in the Firth of Clyde, the ship was left temporarily without power.

A spokesperson for Ferguson Marine said: "During day three of owner’s trials, MV Glen Sannox experienced a blackout.

"This was a result of inadvertently triggering a fire detector on board; although a false alarm, it ultimately resulted in the shutdown of the ship’s main propulsion. The ship was operating on MGO [marine gas oil] at the time.

“Checks of the main engines were undertaken and a soft restart followed. All systems were safely restarted without any adverse effects. However, trials were temporarily halted."

A spokesperson for ferry operator CalMac said sea trials and rigorous testing of systems and equipment were an essential part of any build process.

"The process has worked exactly as intended and helped identify an issue that can be rectified prior to delivery," the spokesperson added.

Ferguson Marine chief executive John Petticrew has updated MSPs, external and will give another update next week on whether there will be any impact on the planned delivery date.

The ship is currently due to be handed over by 14 October, after which CalMac will carry out several weeks of crew familiarisation before the ship carries its first passengers, possibly in December.

Glen Sannox and its sister ship Glen Rosa were originally due to enter service in 2018, but the project has been hit by design challenges and an acrimonious dispute between CMAL and the former owners of the Ferguson shipyard in Port Glasgow.

The shipyard was nationalised in 2019, but delays and cost increases have continued, with recent problems linked to the LNG systems.

The ships are the first LNG ferries ever built by a UK shipyard.

Glen Sannox will be the first new large vessel delivered to CalMac in almost a decade, and its arrival should relieve pressures on the ageing west coast fleet.

The first of four other large CalMac vessels being built in Turkey should begin to arrive next year, although a new delay to these , externalwas announced last week.

A second LNG ferry being built by Ferguson's, Glen Rosa, is currently due to be delivered next September, and will also be deployed on the busy Arran route.