A 'shoogle' for little Rocco

Guy Ritchie carries baby Roccco out of the cathedral

Guy Ritchie was every bit the proud father as he descended the steps of Dornoch Cathedral with his baby son Rocco.

Despite the cacophony of cheers from onlookers and the flash and click of ranks of cameras, you could clearly make out the smile of a doting dad.

And, in an instant caught by BBC camera crews, Ritchie gave his little boy what the Scots call a shoogle, a gentle rock as they made their way to the car.

Ritchie on his arrival at Inverness

It was a touching moment for Ritchie and his wife-to-be Madonna as their son was baptised at the cathedral.

The normally reserved Ritchie, creator of the hardman hit movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, has almost looked like someone unable to smile in public in recent days.

As he arrived at Inverness Airport earlier this week with Madonna, Rocco and Madonna's daughter Lourdes, he seemed like a man preoccupied with serious matters.

But that ruffled brow unfurled on Thursday evening as he walked to the car with Rocco, shielding him from the flash guns.

The smile was a moment of a warmth much needed on a cold winter night, when no quarter was given by the photographers scrambling with each other for a picture and praying for decent results in the artificial light outside the church.

That brief snapshot of Ritchie and baby may be an enduring image in a week of extraordinary events in Sutherland.