A MASSIVE search for a retired top Scottish civil servant missing for six days in Scotland's mountains ended yesterday when his body was found.

Widower David Williamson, 78, a former keeper of the Registers of Scotland, had been last seen at breakfast time on Saturday at a country house hotel on the shores of a sea loch eight miles from Kyle of Lochalsh.

The pensioner's body was spotted on a Wester Ross mountainside by the crew of the Storno- way-based Coastguard rescue helicopter at the bottom of a very steep craggy incline. A rescue volunteer said that it looked ''as though he had fallen''

The services were alerted over the missing hillwalking enthusiast, who stayed in a sheltered housing complex at Homeross House, Mount Grange, Edinburgh, on Tuesday lunchtime after he had not arrived as expected at a relative's house in Shieldaig, Wester Ross, or contacted long-term friend Jackie MacKenzie, of nearby Lochcarron, about plans they had arranged for Monday.

Mr Williamson booked out of Conchra House Hotel, Ardleve, on Saturday morning and gave staff the impression that he planned to climb to the summit of 2466ft Ben Killilan and later drive to Achnashellach, a halt on the Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh rail line. On Tuesday afternoon his car was found abandoned at the foot of the hill as the search began.

His body was found in the foothills of the mountain, on the 62,000 acre estate of Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the famous race horse owner member of the ruling Royal house of Dubai.

Mr Williamson was a distinguished war veteran, who rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Artillery. When he was made a Commander of the British Empire by the Queen, the citation was jointly for his work as a senior civil servant and his voluntary efforts for boys' clubs, a subject on which he wrote and edited two books.

His civil service career began in 1937, and he headed a staff of 800 by the time he retired. He and his wife Agnes, who died three years ago, had no children.