THE LAST Scottish farm under the cloud of the Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion – in Stirlingshire – has been give the all-clear, the Food Standards Agency has confirmed.

There were initially 9700 UK farms – 2900 of them in central and South-west Scotland – and 4.225m sheep affected by the movement restrictions imposed in 1987, after dust from the explosion was blown west to leave a legacy of radioactivity on high ground, which passed in turn to grazing sheep.

The clampdown prevented all of the farms from selling sheep into the food chain.

Since then, the radioactivity monitoring requirements have been lifted progressively over the years. The FSA said: “As of February this year, only two areas of Scotland remained under restrictions.

“Of these, one area has been taken out of agricultural use and the other area has now been removed from restrictions.”

The move was welcomed by NFU Scotland. Union communications director Bob Carruth said: “It seems incredible that 23 years after the Chernobyl accident, a small number of Scottish sheep farms remained under restrictions and were required to undergo annual monitoring for radioactivity.”