Two exhausted hillwalkers were rescued in darkness on the King’s private Scottish estate at the weekend.
The husband and wife were on a camping trip, but came unstuck on Lochnagar, the mountain immortalised by King Charles in his children’s book, The Old Man of Lochnagar.
In total 12 members of Braemar Mountain Rescue Team – whose patron is King Charles – and six from Aberdeen MRT were sent to reach the pair who were walking on Balmoral.
The couple, in their 30s from the Glasgow area, raised the alarm at around 10.10pm on Friday and were located just before midnight about 3,000 feet up the peak.
They were eventually taken safely off the hill by 2.45pm on Saturday.
‘They could have been better equipped’
“They could have been better equipped – they had no head torch for example,” said Malcolm MacIntyre, operations manager of Braemar MRT.
“They had camping gear and had spent the previous night in one bothy and were heading to another which involved going over Lochnagar.
“But they were overcome by the conditions and were very tired.
“They had the bare minimum of equipment for the conditions. It was a particularly dark night and not having a head torch was a problem.
“It is a timely warning that whatever the conditions on the hill be well prepared.”
