Your most-read Scottish stories of 2023

The BBC Scotland news website has looked back at our most-read stories of the year. This is the top 20 for 2023, with the ranking based on the number of page views.

The most-read story of the year came back in February when Nicola Sturgeon announced she was resigning as Scotland’s first minister after more than eight years in the role.

The Scottish National Party leader said she knew “in my head and in my heart” this was the right time to step down.

She is the longest-serving first minister and the first woman to hold the position.

In October, Storm Babet carried a red “danger to life” weather warning.

The storm brought severe flooding to some areas of north east Scotland, with rescue operations in and around the Angus town of Brechin.

Live page coverage of the event which went on for several days ensured it was one of the most-read stories of the year.

At the start of April, Peter Murrell, the husband of former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, was arrested in connection with an investigation into Scottish National Party finances.

The ex-SNP chief executive was later released without charge by police, pending further investigation.

In March, 35 people were injured after a ship tipped over at an Edinburgh dockyard.

A major incident was declared after the research vessel Petrel became dislodged from its holding on a dry dock in Leith.

Pictures posted on social media showed the 3,000-tonne vessel, which is owned by the US Navy, leaning at a 45-degree angle.

A month later, two tugs manoeuvred the 3,371-tonne ship and righted it again.

In January, a transgender woman was found guilty of raping two women in attacks carried out before she changed gender.

Isla Bryson committed the crimes in 2016 and 2019 while known as Adam Graham.

Bryson was remanded to Cornton Vale women’s prison in Stirling after being convicted of the rapes but was later moved to HMP Edinburgh.

It came after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that Bryson would not be allowed to serve her sentence at Cornton Vale.

On a Sunday morning in June, former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was arrested in connection with the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the SNP.

Police confirmed a 52-year-old woman was taken into custody as a suspect and was questioned by detectives

It followed the arrest and subsequent release of her husband, ex-SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, in April.

Ms Sturgeon was released without charge pending further investigations.

She released a statement saying: “I know beyond doubt that I am innocent of any wrongdoing”.

In August, three climbers were found dead after failing to return from a trip into Glen Coe.

Police Scotland said the bodies of two men and a woman were discovered during a search of Aonach Eagach, a ridge popular with climbers.

The annual funniest gag of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was won by comedian Lorna Rose Treen.

She claimed the prize with her pun: “I started dating a zookeeper, but it turned out he was a cheetah.”

Lorna described herself as “blooming chuffed” at learning her joke was the winner.

The new year got off to a tragic start in Perth where three people died after a fire broke out at a hotel.

Emergency services including 21 ambulance crews, 60 firefighters and nine fire engines were called to the New County Hotel on County Place at 05:00.

In April, a man was jailed for a minimum of 20 years for killing his pregnant wife by pushing her 50ft off a cliff edge at Edinburgh Arthur’s Seat beauty spot.

Kashif Anwar killed 31-year-old Fawziyah Javed when she plunged from a rocky outcrop during a holiday in September 2021.

As she lay dying, Ms Javed, from Yorkshire, told a police officer her husband had pushed her.

In July, there was a story about the Orkney Islands considering a change to their status in the UK or even becoming a self-governing territory of Norway.

A motion before the council investigated “alternative forms of governance”.

Council leader James Stockan said Orkney did not get fair funding with its current relationship within the UK.

In April, the Scottish Conservatives claimed the SNP was in “total meltdown” after treasurer Colin Beattie was arrested by police investigating the party’s finances.

The 71-year-old’s arrest was announced just hours before new First Minister Humza Yousaf set out his government’s priorities for the next three years.

Mr Beattie was later released without charge pending further investigation.

In October, Labour defeated the SNP to win the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election.

The party’s candidate, Michael Shanks, took the Westminster seat with 17,845 votes – more than double the number polled by the SNP’s Katy Loudon.

The by-election was called after former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier was ousted by her constituents for breaking Covid rules.

At the end of March, the SNP chose a new leader to replace Nicola Sturgeon.

Humza Yousaf defeated rivals Kate Forbes and Ash Regan in a leadership contest that exposed divisions within the party.

The 37-year-old also became Scotland’s first minister.

In the run-up to King Charles’ coronation, The Proclaimers became involved in a musical row.

In April, they were removed from an official coronation playlist after they were criticised for their anti-royal views.

Craig and Charlie Reid’s hit I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) had been featured alongside prominent UK artists.

Weeks later the duo told the BBC the row had passed them by.

“We didn’t know it was going on and we didn’t know it was coming off,” they told BBC Radio Scotland’s Afternoon Show.

In April, the discovery of the body of pregnant teacher Marelle Sturrock led to a high-profile search for her partner.

The body of David Yates was later found in a reservoir at Mugdock Country Park, near Glasgow.

Jenny Pearson knew her father was emotionally and physically abusive when she was a child in the 1970s.

But it was just last year she heard the details of the sexual abuse he carried out on pupils while he was a teacher at a top private school in Edinburgh.

In July, Connor Gibson was found guilty of sexually assaulting and murdering his 16-year-old sister in a park in Hamilton.

Amber Gibson’s body was found in Cadzow Glen on 28 November 2021, two days after she was last seen.

Her brother strangled Amber then got rid of clothes he had been wearing and called the children’s home Amber was staying at to pretend she was still alive.

In March, Kate Forbes finished second in the SNP leadership race and then quit the Scottish government.

Her departure came hours after new SNP leader Humza Yousaf was confirmed as Scotland’s first minister after a vote in the Scottish Parliament.

In June, Leann Sutherland told the BBC how her surgeon – the former head of neurosurgery at NHS Tayside – was harming patients and putting them at risk for years but the health board let him carry on regardless.

NHS Tayside consistently claimed it only knew of concerns about Prof Sam Eljamel from June 2013 and that they put him under supervision at that point.

But an NHS whistleblower has told the BBC the health board knew as early as 2009 that there were serious concerns.

*****This story has been updated to reflect the addition of missing data from June 2023 *******