Couple lost for two days at Cape Wrath found after five-hour search today
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A COUPLE have been rescued two days after becoming disorientated and losing their way while hiking at Cape Wrath.
The pair, in their 50s, survived a thunderstorm and biting midges without a tent in the remote terrain.
They only managed to raise the alarm when they found enough phone signal to text a family member, said coastguards.
Rescuers who were sent to Cape Wrath took five hours to find them.
Coastguards were alerted to the incident at 7.30am today.
The pair were found at 12.30pm by Durness and Melness coastguard rescue teams who had crossed the Kyle of Durness by ferry to the Cape, where the only residents are a couple who run a cafe and bunkhouse at the area's iconic lighthouse.
A spokesman for Shetland Coastguard, which co-ordinated the rescue, said the pair were found about a third of the way down from the cape tip.
Police escorted them back to their car, which was located 12 miles away at Kinlochbervie.
Lifeboats from Lochinver and Thurso were also sent to the scene and the Stornoway coastguard search and rescue helicopter was put on stand by, but was not needed in the end.
A coastguard spokeswoman said: “They just got totally disorientated. They were lost for two days. They had no tent and on at least one of those nights there was a thunderstorm.
"They were in an area that had no phone signal, then it went dead before they managed to find some signal get a text to family. They were from the Midlands and were familiar with the area but they simply got disorientated and could not find their way back."
But getting to Cape Wrath Lighthouse which is near the 921-feet highest vertical cliffs on mainland Britain, is not easy. It usually involves a ferry journey across the narrow Kyle of Durness and a 11 mile trip up a bumpy road.
The lighthouse is also surrounded by Britain's biggest bombing range and the only place in Europe where 1000lb bombs can be dropped. The area is closed for war games up to 120 days a year.
The name of the Cape Wrath headland derives, not from the stormy waters of the area but from the Norse word for a "turning point", as Vikings turned their ships to head home.
Aside from the military bombing, the lighthouse's surrounding terrain can be so dangerous that a few years ago an artist died from hypothermia and starvation after undertaking the trek on her own.
Even in good weather, there has been the occasional tragedy, from birdwatchers getting too close to the cliff edge to a poor woman who spread her plastic coat on a grassy slope, sat down to admire the view and promptly slid to her death.
Winds have been known to reach 120mph at Cape Wrath which teems with wildlife such as deer, sea eagles and below passing whales.
The MoD currently own 25,000 acres - almost the entire headland apart from a parcel of land surrounding the lighthouse, located on the north west tip.
The tower is built of hand dressed stone and the rest of the building is constructed of large blocks of granite quarried from nearby Clash Carnoch. The tower and dwelling houses are listed buildings of architectural and historic interest.
The first helicopter relief at a shore-based Scottish lighthouse was carried out at the lighthouse on January 17, 1977.
And the light has had one Royal visitor. Princess Anne, who is patron of the Northern Lighthouse Board, also popped in by helicopter in 2009.
Cape Wrath currently attracts around 6,000 seasonal visitors annually.
The cape's only permanent residents are John Ure and his daughter Angela who run the Ozone Cafe near the lighthouse and a bunkhouse.
There was once a full-time community of around 35 people living on the cape in the 1930s. Today it just the Ures.
Mr Ure and his late wife Kay shot to worldwide fame when Kay was separated from husband for four weeks by the weather at Christmas in 2009 when she went to buy a turkey.
