A TALENTED young dancer has been putting her best foot forward and scooping up medals across Scotland.

Poppy Murray and her proud mum Lynette were thrilled when she clinched two at her most recent competition in Penicuik.

But this was just the latest in a string of successes for the gifted youngster.

Since August, eight-year-old Poppy has been travelling the length of the country every weekend to participate in highland dancing competitions, and she is hoping to compete at the Hawaii Highland games next Easter.

Poppy started dancing aged five, following in the footsteps of her mum Lynette, who competed as a dancer for over 20 years.

She was unsure about dancing to begin with but soon grew to love it and has now added ballet and tap dancing to her repertoire.

Lynette said: "When I first got pregnant, my dad said 'if it's a boy, I'll buy his first motorcycle.'

"I told him if it was a girl he could buy her first pair of pumps, and sure enough when Poppy was born he did."

After a long lockdown without any in-person dance lessons, the young star was delighted when she began attending the Margaret Rose School of Dance in April.

When she started competitions again in August, Poppy had to compete in a different age bracket from the one she had been in pre-pandemic, which meant learning an entirely new set of dances.

Despite her hiatus and the challenges of learning new moves, her passion for dancing has never been greater.

Poppy said: "I'm very glad to be back.

"It's so good to see everyone and it's good to get to dance again.

"I missed it so much."