Scotland basked in sunshine yesterday with many people taking advantage of the fine bank holiday weather while, in contrast, much of southern England and Wales endured heavy rain which led to reports of flooding, power failures and disruption to rail services.

Blanket sunshine and temperatures reaching almost 70F, saw the mercury in some parts of Scotland - including Argyll, the north-west Highlands and Glasgow - rise higher than in Barcelona and Madrid.

A brisk wind meant the east coast remained slightly cooler, with Aberdeen and Edinburgh recording early temperatures of 13C and 14C.

The fine weather north of the border means that May is on course to become one of the driest on record in Scotland and helped boost attendances at some of the country's leading tourist attractions.

A Met Office spokesman said: "There has been a lot of dry weather in Scotland during the month of May over the past 10 years.

"Although some outbreaks of rain are expected across much of Scotland on Wednesday and Thursday, this month is still on course to be one of the driest Mays on record."

The spokesman said that the settled conditions were expected to return by the weekend.

Management at Edinburgh Zoo and the Falkirk Wheel reported brisk business yesterday as visitors flocked to outdoor attractions across the country.

A spokeswoman for Edinburgh Zoo said: "We had our busiest day for more than 20 years earlier this month when almost 9500 visitors came to the zoo on the May 5 bank holiday.

"This weekend we have had almost 13,000 visitors. The numbers are up 45% on last year.

"There is no doubt the good weather, combined with some new attractions at the zoo, including a new chimpanzee enclosure and our Living Links primate behavioural research centre, have helped to boost the visitor numbers."

Shaun Niven, duty manager at the Falkirk Wheel, which has become one of Scotland's most popular tourist attractions since it opened six years ago, said: "The fine weather has contributed to us having a very good weekend.

"We have had 11,000 visitors over the weekend, including 3500 today. These are the sort of numbers we would normally expect at the height of the summer season."

"Strong" visitor numbers were also reported at Edinburgh Castle and Stirling Castle, run by Historic Scotland.

The fine weather north of the border contrasted with that in southern England which suffered one of the wettest spring bank holiday weekends in history, with some areas receiving the normal monthly rainfall over 48 hours.

More than 100 homes across Kent and Sussex were hit by flooding and left without power after heavy rain.

While the bad weather saved motorists from bank holiday travel misery, rail passengers were not so lucky.

The wettest part of the UK was Liscombe in Exmoor which saw 37mm of rain fall in six hours early yesterday.