Massive Sutherland search for missing man called off after seven hours
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Coastguard teams from Ullapool, Durness, Achiltibuie and Kinlochbervie had to hike several miles in wet and windy weather to Sandwood Bay.
The search was mounted in deteriorating conditions in north west Sutherland last night, but after seven hours there was no trace of the person.
It was sparked after a Facebook post showed the missing man, from the south of England, in a group on the picturesque but remote beach.
Sussex Police contacted Stornoway Coastguard to alert them.
However it only later emerged that the picture was a few months old and had been posted by somebody else.
Before then Lochinver Lifeboat launched at 3.50pm.
The lifeboat arrived on scene after a passage north lasting an hour-and-a-quarter, at the same time as the coastguard teams were arriving over land.
The lifeboat launched its daughter craft “Y boat” and a search was conducted along the beach and surrounding cliffs closer in by the Y boat and further off shore by the lifeboat.
By 7pm, with light failing and nothing found, the search was halted and the lifeboat stood down to return to station.
"The return passage was increasingly bumpy in SW winds gusting up to gale force. The lifeboat arrived back in Lochinver at 9pm," a spokesperson for the lifeboat said.
A spokeswoman for Stornoway Coastguard said the incident ended for all teams at 10.06pm and that it had been an exhausting night for the rescuers in poor conditions. Currently they had no further information to act upon.
