A second hillwalker who went missing while trekking in Dumfries and Galloway has died.
Geoffrey Stewart, 74, from Dumfries, went missing in the Southern Uplands with George Crosbie, 73, and Bobby Thomson, 64, on Tuesday.
It is understood the trio became lost after their GPS equipment failed, leaving them stranded overnight in the Scottish Uplands.
Police Scotland said Mr Stewart died late on Wednesday night at the Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary.
Mr Crosbie died of exposure earlier on Wednesday. A third man from the group is recovering in hospital.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "A second man from the group of three missing walkers in the Durisdeer area has died in Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary.
"He was pronounced dead late on Wednesday, February 17.
"The two men who died are now named as George Crosbie, 73, and Geoffrey Stewart, 74.
"The Procurator Fiscal has been informed. The third man from the group is recovering in Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary."
Mr Thomson is currently recovering well in hospital, according to his family.
In a statement issued through Police Scotland, relatives of Mr Thomson thanked rescuers involved in the search, and said he hopes to be home from hospital soon.
"Our family would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the families of George and Geoff following this tragedy," they added.
"We are very grateful to all the services that were involved in the search and rescue and would like to thank them and the staff at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary for all their efforts."
The trio had told family they would be home by 3.30pm on Wednesday but relatives called police two hours later when they failed to return. Police did not immediately name the walker who died.
The men were found 2.5 miles east of Durisdeer in Dumfries and Galloway following a large-scale search involving police and mountain rescue teams. All three were airlifted to hospital.
Mr Stewart's family said: "Our family would like to extend our love and thoughts to the families involved at this very sad and tragic time. Sincere gratitude and appreciation goes out to all the services involved in the rescue efforts and hospital staff at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel