THE body of a woman, believed to be in her early thirties, was

discovered yesterday at the foot of a cliff on the island of Unst,

Shetland, after a search involving police, auxiliary coastguards and RAF

personnel.

The search followed the discovery of a man's body on a hillside in the

same area of Herma Ness, a National Nature Reserve and world-famous bird

sanctuary, on Sunday.

After the first body was found, police became concerned that another

person may have been on the hillside because a car nearby appeared to

have had more than one occupant.

Both bodies were taken to Lerwick yesterday and reports on the

incident will be sent to the procurator-fiscal. The Herma Ness area was

hit by winds gusting up to 200mph on New Year's Day.

The body of the woman was found at the water's edge below a 300ft

cliff in Burra Firth, part of the bird sanctuary. It was recovered by

auxiliary coastguard staff from Baltasound.

A spokesman for the coastguard at Lerwick said that a note had been

left in the parked car by the couple, who had been staying in bed and

breakfast accommodation on Unst, saying that they were going for a walk

and would be back on January 1.

The spokesman said: ''We know that they had gone there for

bird-watching and we believe they wanted to be the first people of the

year to sign a visitors' book which was in a bird hide hut.

''The hut has been destroyed by the winds but whether they were in the

hut or making their way to it, we don't know.''

Police said that one theory was that the couple had either been

camping or sheltering in the small hut when it was blown away. The man

is believed to have died of exposure either on Hogmanay or January 1.