I was standing in our kitchen on the north side of Aberdeen the other morning and wondered why I could smell burning.

It was faint yet distinctive enough to notice.

I suggested it might be something to do with butter chicken curry my wife made the night before.

The response from the aforementioned chef was on the frosty side of cool; indignant was an understatement.

It seemed to fill the air outside in our garden; a blue haze was enveloping the district like a creepy movie.

It took a while for the penny to drop.

“Maybe someone’s burning something in their back garden, and it’s got out of hand,” was my next suggestion.

Sensibly, my wife checked The P&J website and discovered that the wind had turned, and we were now getting a taste of the Cairngorms wildfire inferno.

Cairngorms wildfire smoke drifted as far as Aberdeen

There are a lot of things which bond the Highlands and north-east together like blood brothers.

Shared history, with its rich tapestry of triumphs and setbacks, and common geographical interests in business, health and transport.

But there was a whiff of something else in the air as the Cairngorms blazed.

A kind of vague perception that Highlands........

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