Scotland ground to a halt at the weekend as some of the heaviest snowfall in half a century hit the country. Several strategic roads were closed, including the M74 linking western Scotland and England, Glasgow’s Erskine Bridge, and the A83, A71, and A814 through Argyll and Bute. More than 3,000 people were stranded in Glasgow on Saturday when taxis could not leave, due to the snowfall. The Met Office had warned of heavy snow as early as Thursday. But a spokeswoman for Transport Scotland said: ‘It was the sheer volume of snow that caused us problems.’ A lorry unable to deal with the steep incline at Beattock Summit in the snow, where the salt had not yet taken affect, forced the closure of the M74’s northbound lane. The Met Office said some areas in northern Scotland had 14 inches of snow – ‘something we have not seen since the 1950s’.