One of the favourite sneering Unionist memes of the independence referendum was the mocking dismissal of claims by some Yes supporters that there might be “secret oil fields” in a location off the west of Shetland known as Clair Ridge.

So amused were the Unionists by this notion that they were still sniggering about it regularly years after the referendum, right up to earlier this month.

Curiously, they’ve gone a little quieter in recent days.

The potential existence of a large untapped field was discussed back in the summer of 2014 in a story by journalist Michael Gray published by Business For Scotland:

The piece specifically identified the supposed area as the small “Lancaster” field owned by Hurricane Energy. Which by a remarkable coincidence is the exact location of what today’s Daily Record describes as the “largest UK find of the century”.

(“Larger” is quite a feat of understatement there. It’s about 40 times larger.)

The amount of oil recoverable from the field is yet to be definitively established. But it’s just one tiny speck in Scotland’s oceans. That might be worth keeping in mind the next time the No camp howls its mockery over any suggestion that Scotland might not be the hopeless economic basket case they desperately need to present it as.

We’ll say no more than that.