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.
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