Subsea cables to be laid in Moray Firth for SSE project

Another ship, Siem Ruby, was used to plough a trench for the cables

A ship has arrived at Aberdeen from Sweden to lay more than 70 miles (113km) of high voltage subsea cables from Caithness to Moray.

The cable will have capacity to carry up to 1,200MW of electricity generated by renewable energy projects in the north of Scotland.

In March another ship, the Siem Ruby, used a subsea boulder clearance plough to create a trench in the Moray Firth.

NKT Victoria will lower cables into the trench before it is backfilled.

The first section of cable will be laid from Noss Head in Caithness to a midpoint where it will be joined to a second cable to be laid from Portgordon in Moray.

Led by SSE, the £1.1bn Caithness-Moray Project is to be completed next year.