FULL SCALE SEARCH FOR MISSING WALKER ON SOUTHERN UPLAND WAY

About 11.00pm on Thursday 19th August 2004, police were alerted to an overdue hillwalker who had been walking a 27 mile section of the Southern Upland Way between Dalry and Sanquhar. The 50 year old, from the Aberdeen area had failed to arrive at his overnight accommodation in Sanquhar resulting in the rescues services being contacted.

A small team of personnel from Galloway MRT carried out checks at bothies and possible overnight retreats before a full scale search and rescue operation was commenced around 7.00am on Friday morning. Search teams from Galloway MRT, Moffat MRT, The Search and Rescue Dogs Association (SARDA) (Southern Scotland) and a helicopter from HMS Gannet at Prestwick were involved in widescale searches along the entire section of the Way between the two towns. At around 8.00pm, the walker was found safe and well in New Cumnock, South Ayrshire.

Team Leader of Galloway MRT, David Tyson commented - "This is a very remote corner of our area and a very lengthy section of the Southern Upland Way. There are many valleys and situations where walkers could easily lose their way and quickly become disorientated. Thankfully our missing walker was safely located and suffered no more than blistering to his feet and exhaustion".

Mr Tyson goes on to say - "The Southern Upland Way is becoming increasingly popular with walkers. Anyone considering undertaking this rewarding challenge should visit our team website (http://www.gallowaymrt.org.uk) where essential safety advice, including constantly updated weather reports can be easily accessed".

Anyone who is interested in find out more about Galloway MRT can log onto http://www.gallowaymrt.org.uk.

Press Release issued - 23rd August 2004