Minke whale lies on beach
The remains of the young Minke whale lies on the beach
A dead 12ft minke whale washed up on the beach at Invergordon has been removed - after council officials had to rethink how to do it.

The carcasse appeared on the town's shore on Monday and the Highland Council's environmental health officers hoped to use a crane to take it away.

But a council spokeswoman said because of the dead mammal's location, they had not been able to use conventional lifting equipment.

Instead, a special crane was sent for and it was lifted off the beach on Wednesday.

The spokeswoman said: "I can confirm that the whale has been uplifted and has been taken away by the specialist contractor for disposal.

"The environmental health officer said there was no health hazard to the public if it was left just a little longer.

"During incidents like this we use a specialised contractor for removal, but this one has posed a wee bit of a problem in that the usual crane just could not have got onto the beach at this point."

The dead whale was spotted shortly before it came ashore by the Invergordon lifeboat volunteers who notified the Cromarty Firth Port Authority.

They notified the Highland Council's environmental health officers who visited the location and discovered the mammal - which was thought to have been struck by a ship's propellor - had lost its tail.

Normally, a team from the Scotland's Rural College would also have been notified to carry out an inspection, but they were in Tiree following the discovery of a dead killer whale on the island.

The council spokeswoman said: "Because they were unable to attend we sent them photographs of the carcasse which they were content with."