logo
Scottish ostrich egg used to crack world record for biggest Scotch egg

Scottish ostrich egg used to crack world record for biggest Scotch egg

STV News21-07-2025
An ostrich egg from a Scottish farm has been used to break the record for the biggest Scotch egg ever made.
Social media chefs Phoenix Ross and Oli Paterson have been recognised for smashing the 20-year-old Guinness World Record.
Isla French, co-owner of Little Rowater Farm in Banff in Aberdeenshire, said she was 'amazed' to discover one of her ostrich eggs was used.
'I appreciate good food and just love to see something from my farm be used for a Guinness World Record,' she told STV News.
The chefs, from Enfield in England, bought five eggs from the farm – three of which were used in their attempt to break the record on June 17.
Phoenix said he has 'wanted to break a world record since he was a kid.'
Oliver told STV News: 'We looked at a few world records, and burrito was unbeatable at 2.4km long, and sausage roll was 111m.
'When we found 6.2kg scotch egg, we knew it was the one.'
After one failed attempt, the duo succeeded in breaking the record with a fully intact scotch egg weighing almost 8kg – more than a bowling ball.
The previous record was 6kg and stood for almost 20 years.
The Scotch egg was made by being wrapped in sausage meat then covered in bread crumbs and deep fried before being put in an oven.
The whole process took over 24 hours.
Oliver said: 'It feels great to break the record, now 'were fingers crossed for getting in the book and setting our sights on new records.' Guinness World Record
Isla French, 37, said she was stunned to learn her farm produce had played a part.
'When I sell these eggs, I never have an idea of where they go or what people do with them – this is a nice surprise,' Isla said.
'Someone's taken something from my little and got a Guinness World Record, it's just wow.'
Isla French and her husband George, 42, started their family farm over ten years ago and have had an enclosure for ostriches from almost the start.
They sells each egg, which weighs up to 1.8kg and contains 1.2 litres of contents, for £25.
Each egg is the equivalent of 24 hen eggs. Isla French
Isla said she and her family use eggs for omelettes, pancakes and baking as well as make huge fried eggs.
'We're a family farm and when our children are asked where eggs come from, they say ostriches.
'To them, that's normal.'
However, she has never seen anything as 'inspiring' or as 'clever' as the ambition to make a Scotch egg with it.
The French family had previously appeared on the BBC series This Farming Life. Isla French
The ostrich egg holds the record for the largest egg produced by any living bird.
The average example measures 6–8 in (15–20 cm) in length, 4–6 in (10–15 cm) in diameter and weighs 3 lb 10 oz–3 lb 14 oz (1.65–1.78 kg) – equal to the volume of 24 hen's eggs.
It also holds the record for toughest egg produced by a bird – it can withstand the weight of a 115-kg (253-lb 8-oz) person and often having to be cracked open with a hammer.
Ostrich themselves are the world's largest bird and can reach speed of up to 70km an hour.
They can also live up to 75 years in captivity.
Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

What reparations should Palestine receive? The Fringe show where you decide
What reparations should Palestine receive? The Fringe show where you decide

The National

timean hour ago

  • The National

What reparations should Palestine receive? The Fringe show where you decide

That is the speculative future Farah Saleh, a Palestinian dancer, choreographer, and academic based in Edinburgh, is inviting audiences to step into at this year's [[Edinburgh]] Fringe show, Balfour Reparations. Focusing on Edinburgh-born Arthur James Balfour, who when serving as prime minister (1902-1905) and foreign secretary (1916-1919), denied Palestinian political rights, difficult questions are placed squarely into the hands of the audience — a community tasked with imagining a future of reparations for Palestine. READ MORE: Scottish women on taking their shows to the Fringe this year 'The performance starts from this year in which I say at the beginning of the performance we're going to look back at 20 years ago when the letter was issued exactly today. 'So it's the day of the performance 20 years before that the letter was issued. And we reflect on all the reparations process, the effective one that took place," she explains. The work, which runs for 40 minutes followed by a 20-minute Q&A, takes the audience on a journey that connects the past, present and future — a weaving together of grief, history, and hope which they are witnessing today as the genocide in Palestine is live-streamed. 'For me, when I connect past, present, and future, I manage to hold space for all of these different emotions and states,' Saleh says. Born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria and having lived in Jordan, Palestine, and now Scotland, Saleh carries with her a lived experience of exile and return. This long view of time and movement is central to her work. 'It's not only about love and peace that doesn't exist in like a hope in the sense of it will be peace and everything will be perfect. We say that peace is a white person's like concept or word for liberation or freedom.' What unfolds in the performance is not a linear narrative, but a shared space of responsibility. Audience members are given letters and sometimes embroidery. They are asked to read aloud from the stage. And, crucially, they are invited to imagine reparations — to speak them into the room. 'So if they want to fight, they can,' Saleh says, 'but it's just like one person says recommendations for the future... It's an accumulation of thoughts.' READ MORE: I'm performing at the Fringe but fear I won't be allowed to re-enter the US Tension, for Saleh, isn't a threat — it's part of the work. 'I have no problem with tension. Tension is part of our life. So I'm, I'm, it's welcome.' The audience suggestions range widely. 'Some people say we need reparations money because it's very material, what they destroyed, and some people say no reparations it's not only about money, it's more cultural, it's songs, it's all the people that passed away, their legacy, like how can you keep it,' she recounts. 'There's people talk about trees and seeds,' she adds. 'Some people were like saying what do we do? With these new settler plants, do we adapt to them or do we cut them?' A QR code at the end of the show invites further responses, and Saleh notes that 'around five people each performance send some further reparations, even if it's like a sentence or two.' This interaction — a sort of living archive of ideas — is as much a part of the work as the performance itself. 'It's how they experience that responsibility in and how they transport it outside and hopefully keep feeling that responsibility also outside the performance space,' she says. 'They take the letter with them home ... they can read through it and see all the different points they can contribute to.' The timing of the piece is deliberate. The year 2045, only twenty years away, anchors the performance's speculative structure in the near future. 'So hoping that all the people in the room will be around like the 20 years,' she says with a small laugh, 'it's also about thinking further than 2045 with them.' As Saleh reminds us, reparations are not abstract ideas or distant policies. They are embodied, cultural, material, and — perhaps most importantly — collective. 'It's their responsibility to keep the show going.'

VERY fishy behaviour! Parts of Sir David Attenborough's latest series Parenthood are filmed in a TANK, BBC admit
VERY fishy behaviour! Parts of Sir David Attenborough's latest series Parenthood are filmed in a TANK, BBC admit

Daily Mail​

time4 hours ago

  • Daily Mail​

VERY fishy behaviour! Parts of Sir David Attenborough's latest series Parenthood are filmed in a TANK, BBC admit

Parts of David Attenborough 's latest series were filmed in a fish tank rather than in the wild, the BBC has admitted. The beloved British broadcaster used tanks during key scenes that featured boxer crabs, skeleton shrimps and Banggai cardinalfish across the five episodes of Parenthood. Airing its first episode on Sunday, August 1, the series promised viewers 'astonishing, never-before-seen animal behaviours in stunning ultra high definition, from the remote jungles of Bhutan to the grasslands of Botswana'. The near hour-long programme by Sir David, aged 99, focuses on animal parents that are 'having to adapt to a world that is changing rapidly', with the creatures facing 'a unique set of challenges' that they must overcome. It is the first BBC natural history series to focus on parenting, with the team using new technology to capture the weird and wonderful in the wild. However, the BBC have now revealed parts of the unique show were not filmed 'in situ', as viewers may have initially expected, but instead were shot in manufactured environments such as tanks and incubators. The decision was taken, the public broadcaster insists, due to the 'tiny scale of the animals, fragility of the environment and sensitive nature between parents and their young', The Times reported. In an article published by producers Jeff Wilson and Olly Scholey it was revealed that during the five-minute opening of an episode that showcased turtle hatchlings, filming occurred in a specialist 'incubation project' in Brazil, rather than actually underwater. The pair said that the use of the incubation project ensured that the eggs would not be disturbed while also allowing viewers to witness an 'unbelievable spectacle' that ultimately 'was crucial to the story'. In the incredible scene, described as 'a seminal moment for the film', hundreds of young turtles are shown following their mothers calls to the safety of the river, acting as a visualisation of the unpredictability of parenting in the animal kingdom. On Monday, the BBC told The Times that distributing the eggs in situ 'would've overstepped the mark'. Insisting that filming underwater 'would mean risking the survival of the young', Mr Wilson and Mr Scholey also said that the decision to use tanks was taken to 'ensure that we got the balance absolutely right'. Due to the 'incredibly fragile' animals, the filming crews sought to 'tread carefully' in order to avoid infringing on the natural wildlife. As a result, a specialist tank set in Indonesia was also used during a five-minute scene of boxer crabs shown in the opening of the show's first episode. Both Mr Wilson and Mr Scholey also acknowledged that several parts of the programme were indeed captured on location, with filming said to have taken place across locations spanning Botswana, Arizona, Tanzania, Namibia, southern Spain and Indonesia. They added that unlike on land, filming underwater presents a host of unique challenges, with water visibility changing hourly, and divers forced to wade through water in search of the story. A fascinating clip captured from the show's first instalment showed Attenborough's team as they attempt to build up a relationship with the unique silverback gorillas and their infants. Described by Max Kobl, cinematographer for the show, as 'probably the most powerful of all primates', Sir David, narrating, warns that 'it isn't going to come easy' for the film crew as they attempt to get close to the sneaky gorillas. Initially, the team face great difficulty even finding the animals, seen wading through thick swamps in order to locate them and using indicators such as the types of twigs on the ground. Commentating, one member of the crew says: 'The swamps don't pose challenges for the gorillas, the swamps pose one of many challenges for us.' In the insightful footage of their challenging trek, one member of the team is seen nearly toppling over due to the thick, knee-deep water. When asked 'you okay?', he simply responds: 'Nope'. Sir David, narrating, adds: 'The team try as best they can to keep up and just as they reach dry land, the gorilla family has other ideas'. In response, viewers took to social media to praise the 'stunning' new show, with one commenter on X gushing: 'All the contributors to Parenthood are amazing', while another added: 'Parenthood is another great programme. Congratulations once again Sir David Attenborough and the BBC'. Meanwhile, a bone chilling moment during the programme captured the moment a colony of newborn African spiders turn to hunt their own mothers. In the never before seen behaviour, a pack of African social spiders are shown hunting in packs and responding to the vibrations of their prey as they struggle in the webs. The spiders move in unison, starting and stopping at the same time, freezing together in a sinister game of musical statues. Even more disturbing, after displaying their hunting skills on their usual prey of insects, the 1,000 strong colony then turns on their own mothers and eat them alive. Parenthood also features striking footage of the lives of orangutans, elephants and cheetahs, among many others. Unique technology used across the five-part series includes military-grade infrared cameras mounted on gimbals on off-road vehicles and show hippos being chased by lions at night. The BBC was approached for comment.

The Traitors winner Harry Clark announces debut memoir focused on his faith
The Traitors winner Harry Clark announces debut memoir focused on his faith

South Wales Guardian

time4 hours ago

  • South Wales Guardian

The Traitors winner Harry Clark announces debut memoir focused on his faith

The 24-year-old won the second series of the hit BBC show, which sees a group of 'faithfuls' attempt to banish the 'traitors', who murder during the night-time, in order to win a prize pot of up to £120,000. Staying Faithful is slated for release this autumn and will recount Clark's formative years serving in the British Army, before his reality TV fame, along with how his Christian faith has and continues to guide him through his life. Speaking about the release, Clark said: 'Faith has always been important to me. 'It's the blueprint to everything I do, it helped me when I was younger, it guided me when I served in the British Army, every day I'm thankful that I'm part of something bigger outside of myself.' The reality star and former British Army engineer took home £95,150 in the 2024 series of The Traitors, after deceiving his friend Mollie Pearce. An average of 5.5 million people tuned in to watch the dramatic finale that crowned Clark as the series two winner. He recently also starred in the seventh season of BBC Two's Pilgrimage: The Road Through The Alps, where he joined six celebrities on a 300km pilgrimage through the Austrian and Swiss Alps to Einsiedeln Abbey as they discussed their different faiths and beliefs. Clark previously opened up to the PA news agency about how the pilgrimage changed him for good and why he thinks people need to talk about faith more openly. He said: 'People think you can't talk about religion – especially the youth – because there's something wrong with it, or it seems like if you believe in one particular religion, you hate all others. But that's not what it is. It doesn't have to be that deep. 'Everyone makes it so serious. If you believe, you believe. If you don't believe, you don't have to, and it's not the end of the world.' Clark also stars in the new series of Channel 4's Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, which sees recruits endure special forces training in an attempt to make it through to the end. He is joined by former Premier League footballer Troy Deeney, Strictly Come Dancing 2025 runner-up Tasha Ghouri, singer Lucy Spraggan, and ex-Love Island contestants Chloe Burrows and Adam Collard. The memoir will be published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK), a charity and independent Christian publisher founded in 1698. The SPCK has also published a range of Bibles, guides to faith, academic texts and books for children with the aim of serving readers 'at every stage of the Christian journey'. Staying Faithful will be published on September 30.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store