Saturday, May 2, 2026 — Edition No. 78 — The Cornmill Intelligencer

← Past Editions · Edition No. 78 · Saturday, May 2, 2026

Today’s outlook: Hollywood comes home to the Highlands

News Scotland

There Can Be Only One: Highlander reboot crowns Scotland as Hollywood's leading lady

Henry Cavill, Russell Crowe and Inverness-born Karen Gillan are shooting the £100m reboot at Eilean Donan, Glencoe and Skye — and Highland businesses are loving every minute.

By Damien Day

A torchlit procession winds out of Eilean Donan Castle. A man on horseback rides at its head, sword in hand. The man is Henry Cavill. The castle is the same one that stood in for Clan MacLeod's home in the 1986 cult original — and 40 years on, Highlander has come back to where it belongs.

Filming is now in full swing across the Highlands for Amazon MGM's reboot of the immortal-swordsman saga, with Cavill in the lead role of Connor MacLeod and a cast that reads like a producer's wishlist: Russell Crowe, Karen Gillan, Jeremy Irons, Djimon Hounsou, Dave Bautista, Kevin McKidd and WWE's Drew McIntyre, all directed by John Wick's Chad Stahelski.

The production has set up at Eilean Donan Castle, Glen Coe, the Trotternish peninsula on Skye — taking in the Old Man of Storr and Bridal Veil Falls — and Glen Nevis near Fort William, with earlier scenes shot in central London. According to Screen Daily, principal photography began in January after a delay caused by an undisclosed injury Cavill suffered in pre-production last year. The Herald reports a budget rumoured to be north of £100 million, with the film set for cinemas in 2027.

Read full story →

AI News

AI spots pancreatic cancer up to three years early in Mayo Clinic breakthrough

A new artificial intelligence tool can detect one of the deadliest cancers on routine CT scans long before a tumour is visible — and long before doctors would normally find it

By Helen Cooper

Pancreatic cancer is one of medicine's cruellest diagnoses. By the time most patients hear the words, the disease has already slipped past the point where doctors can do much about it. More than 85% of cases are caught after the cancer has spread, and fewer than 15 in every 100 patients are still alive five years later.

That is the wall a team at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota has just begun to chip away at — and they have done it with artificial intelligence.

In a landmark validation study published this week in the journal Gut, Mayo researchers showed that an AI model they call REDMOD can spot the faint signature of pancreatic cancer on ordinary abdominal CT scans up to three years before a patient is diagnosed. The scans, in many cases, had already been read as completely normal by human specialists.

Read full story →

Science

Cracking the cotton-polyester code: a chemical breakthrough that could finally make your old t-shirts recyclable

Researchers at Avantium and the University of Amsterdam have found a way to separate the two fibres that make up most of our wardrobes — a long-standing roadblock to genuinely circular fashion

What's On Glasgow

Creatives of Colour Festival returns to Glasgow with four days of poetry, music and free workshops

From spoken word at QMU to a Friday-night gig at Glad Cafe and a Khartoum film screening at Civic House, the 7–10 May festival celebrates BIPOC artists across the city — and most events are free.

By Helen Cooper

Mark the dates: Thursday 7 to Sunday 10 May. The Creatives of Colour Festival is back in Glasgow for four days of poetry, music, film, workshops and conversation — and the good news is most of it is free.

The festival spreads itself across some lovely corners of the city rather than parking in one venue. Expect to find events at Jim's Bar in Queen Margaret Union, Glad Cafe in Shawlands, Civic House up by Speirs Wharf, Woodlands Community, and Gathering Ground. Tickets and full listings are on the Creatives of Colour Eventbrite page — search "Creatives of Colour Festival 2026" and you'll find the lot.

Things kick off on Thursday 7 May at 7pm with an Opening Night of Poetry & Spoken Word at Jim's Bar, QMU — a free, ticketed evening that has become the festival's signature opener. It's the warm, welcoming way in if you're new to the festival and not sure where to start.

Read full story →

What's On Glasgow

Time well spent: the Glasgow Watch Show returns to Hampden

Over 40 brands, Glasgow's own enamel masters, and tickets from £12 — Scotland's biggest day for horology lands at the National Stadium on Saturday 9 May.

By Helen Cooper

The short version: Saturday 9 May, 10am–5pm, Hampden Park, tickets from £12. If you have ever caught yourself glancing twice at a stranger's wrist, this one is for you.

The Glasgow Watch Show returns to the National Stadium for its second outing on Scottish soil, and on the strength of last year's debut the Watch Collectors' Club have made it bigger: over 40 brands from across Europe, a programme of panels with founders and designers, accessory stands, and a sponsor line-up led by Edinburgh auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull.

You can find Hampden at Letherby Drive, G42 9BA, with parking on site and Mount Florida station a five-minute walk away. Tickets start at £12 via the organiser's website, and the doors are open from 10am until 5pm.

Read full story →

What's On Glasgow

Forks at the ready: Eat & Drink Festival returns to the SEC for four days of Scottish flavour

From Isle of Mull cheese to Leith liquor, Glasgow's biggest indoor food festival rolls back into the SEC from 22-25 May — here's what's on the menu.

By Damien Day

The smell of seared scallops, the clink of a freshly shaken negroni, the squeak of a wedge of Mull cheddar being sliced in front of you — the Eat & Drink Festival is back at the SEC from Friday 22 to Monday 25 May, and Glasgow's foodies are already loosening their belts.

Running as part of the Ideal Home Show Scotland, the four-day festival pulls together artisan producers, street food traders, mixologists and celebrity chefs under one roof at the Scottish Event Campus on the Clyde. Organisers expect upwards of 31,000 visitors across the weekend, with an average dwell time of four hours — long enough to eat your way around the country without leaving Finnieston.

Where: Scottish Event Campus (SEC), Exhibition Way, Glasgow G3 8YW.

Read full story →

News Glasgow

Ancient Songs, Iconic Stage: Josie Duncan's Gaelic Spell Stops King Tut's in Its Tracks

How a singer from the Isle of Lewis turned Glasgow's most storied small venue into a Hebridean cathedral for one unforgettable Monday night

By Damien Day

Some moments only Glasgow could give you. A wet Monday night on St Vincent Street, a queue snaking up the famous painted steps of King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, and inside — somewhere between the names of every band that ever mattered — a singer from the Outer Hebrides about to lift the roof off with songs older than the building's bricks.

Josie Duncan's headline gig at King Tut's last Monday was a small affair on paper: 300 capacity, eight pounds a ticket, two warm support sets from Michael Cassidy and Michael McGovern. In practice, it was the kind of evening Glaswegians will quietly tell their grandchildren about.

The Lewis-born singer-songwriter has been one of the brightest voices in Scottish folk for the best part of a decade. In 2017 she and then-duo partner Pablo Lafuente picked up the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award — a calling card that put her on every festival booker's shortlist — and she has since carried Gaelic song from Stornoway to Nova Scotia, Australia and Denmark.

Read full story →

Audio Equipment

Inside K-academy 2026: K-array opens its Tuscan HQ to the next generation of install pros

The Italian line array specialist's flagship training programme returns with six two-day "K-experience" sessions, AVIXA-certified online courses and a hands-on tour of the kit shaping modern live sound and fixed installs

By Damien Day

If you have ever stood in front of a festival main stage and felt the kick drum rearrange your ribcage with surgical precision, there is a reasonable chance the loudspeakers responsible were small, black, and Italian.

K-array, the Tuscan manufacturer that built its reputation on slimline line arrays you can almost hide behind a microphone stand, has opened its headquarters again for the 2026 edition of K-academy — its in-person training programme for the people who actually have to make this kit work in the real world.

K-academy is K-array's global training scheme for system integrators, consultants, distributors, AV installers and live-sound engineers. The flagship strand is the "K-experience": a two-day, in-person course held at the company's headquarters near Florence, walking attendees through the K-array, KGEAR and KSCAPE product ecosystems.

Read full story →