MACKIE’S has hailed the first full year of green energy production from Scotland’s “largest privately-owned solar farm” – noting its output was equivalent to the power required to make 3.3 million litres of ice cream.

The 7,000-panel solar farm, on the Aberdeenshire family farm near Westertown, was built by Loch Lomond-based Absolute Solar and Wind.

Mackie’s said the solar farm was on track to record output of nearly 1.5 million kilowatt hours for 2016 – five per cent above estimates because of favourable weather conditions.

It added that managing director Mac Mackie was proud to be carrying on the legacy of his father, Maitland Mackie, a passionate environmentalist and founder of Mackie’s of Scotland.