Residents of remote Scottish peninsula face up to its future as spaceport

The Mhoine peninsula in Sutherland will house one of UK's first sites of its kind if it wins approval

In two years, thousands of tourists and space enthusiasts could be gathering in the far north of Scotland to watch an unlikely event, the inaugural flight of a rocket blasting off from a peat bog usually grazed by deer and sheep.

The Mhoine peninsula in Sutherland, a desolate stretch of peatland punctuated by mires and tiny lochs overlooking the Pentland Firth, has been chosen as the site of one of the UK's first spaceports - provided it eventually wins approval from the Civil Aviation Authority.