LADY Elizabeth Mackay of Clashfern, the wife of the former Lord Chancellor, was taken to hospital on the island of Skye last night after having fallen and broken her right leg while hillwalking in the Beinn Eighe area in Wester Ross.
Lord Mackay was understood to have been walking with his wife, who is 63, as members of a seven-strong party, which the police described last night as ''well equipped and experienced''.
Police were contacted at about 3.45pm yesterday. The incident happened to the south of Loch Maree about six miles from Bridge of Grudie. The Torridon Mountain Rescue Team was alerted and the coastguard helicopter from Stornoway was scrambled.
Later, the coastguard at Stornoway confirmed that a woman patient was about to be flown to Broadford.
The nursing sister at Broadford hospital said last night: ''I can confirm that Lady Mackay has suffered a fracture to her leg. She is comfortable but will be detained here overnight. Tomorrow she will be transferred to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness for further treatment.''
Lady Mackay, nee Elizabeth Gunn Hymers from Halkirk in Caithness, married James Mackay in 1958 three years after he had been admitted to the Faculty of Advocates. They have a son James and two daughters, Elizabeth and Shona.
Lord Mackay was made Queen's Counsel in 1965 and served as Lord Advocate between 1979 and 1984. Mrs Thatcher appointed him Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain in 1987, an office he held until his retiral at the General Election last year.
In May 1989, Lord Mackay was suspended from the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland for having attended requiem mass for a colleague, the Roman Catholic judge Lord Russell of Killowan, in 1986. Lord and Lady Mackay had both been members of the church for many years, but both left, while the church tore itself apart over the issue.
The couple now live on the Black Isle near Fortrose.
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