A Highland Perthshire town rallied round to prevent a school skiing trip from being cancelled.
Children from Leith Primary School in Edinburgh were on their way to the Lecht when they were caught up in the traffic chaos that engulfed the A9 on Wednesday night.
In wintry conditions several vehicles crashed on the route, with one, between two HGVs, blocking the road in both directions.
After waiting in queuing traffic for more than two hours, the group of 30 children and seven adults were advised by police to return south and they sought shelter in Pitlochry while waiting to see if the road would reopen.
However, as conditions worsened, head teacher Alasdair Friend was convinced they’d have to return to the capital and was about to start informing parents when locals came to the rescue.
Living up to the town’s newly acquired reputation for random acts of kindness, an antidote to the NekNomination craze, an appeal was placed on Facebook by local weatherman Windy Wilson, with many of his followers offering to ask local businesses to help out.
But it was thanks to the efforts of chip shop owner Hugh Foster that the children were able to spend the night in the Atholl Centre.
His Plaice to Be takeaway is traditionally visited by the school on the way home from their annual trip and Hugh was the only person in Pitlochry that they knew.
He put them in touch with Iain Walker, manager at the Atholl Centre, who agreed to put the group up for the night.
Iain added: “They were tired because they’d been sitting around for hours and hours and hours waiting to get up through Drumochter, so it was either us or taking them back to Edinburgh.
“There was a wee thing in the Baptist church and the ladies brought in cake for the children last night.”
Alasdair thanked the community for their support, which meant they were able to travel on to Nethy Bridge in the morning.