A body has been found on the Isle of Skye after a 74-year-old from Dorset went missing almost three weeks ago.
Francis Johnson, who had travelled to Scotland to hike, was last seen at a campsite on the Isle on September 6.
Yesterday it took just an hour for a search operation to find a body, about 1,500 feet up on the south bank of the Sgurr nan Gobhar mountain, in the Cuillin Hills, while it took another four for it to be stretchered down.
Police Scotland reported: “The body of a man has been found on the Cuillin range in the Isle of Skye during searches for a missing person.
“He is yet to be formally identified but the family of Francis Johnson, 74, who had been reported missing in the area, have been informed.”
The identification of a body in the distance was unlikely, said Neil Urquhart, team leader of Skye Mountain Rescue Team, who praised a member of his team for their sharp eyes.
He said: “She was looking through binoculars and saw something that did not appear natural. It was only by using a large drone from Cairngorm MRT, and getting right by the remains, could you tell it was a body.
“If our team member had not seen it, it would have been so easy to miss. She did incredibly well. We would also like to thank all the other teams that came to help. It also follows Friday’s search.”
Mr Johnson’s camping equipment and car are still at the campsite. He was an experienced walker and camper, and had left his home on September 4 and gone to Scotland’s West Coast and booked into various campsites.
He was not the only hiker to go missing in Scotland recently – 56-year-old Charles Kelly also disappeared, and searchers are “baffled” by his vanishing.
Mr Kelly went missing on September 9 and has since had a major search of more than 50 rescue team members, search dogs and a Coastguard rescue helicopter, looking for him – sadly to no avail.
His rucksack was found, with empty water bottles inside, but not him.
He left his home in Clackmannanshire, north-east of Glasgow, to go hiking, and had contacted his family at 8pm the next day.
But police are now scaling down their search for him, having spent 10 days looking for him.
