PLUNGE TO DEATH

Evening Star, Issue 22775, 9 October 1937, Page 20

PLUNGE TO DEATH

Within sight of lofty_ Ben Hope, which is 3,040 ft high, Miss Mary Wilkinson, aged 23, of Glasgow, whose shattered body was found lying in a gully, was laid to rest recently in the little churchyard at Melness, Sutherland. The girl, accompanied by her sister, Miss Kate Wilkinson, aged 22, was on holiday, and had been driven by oar to the foot of the mountain. The weather was dull and cloudy, and the top of the mountain wreathed .in mist. People warned the sisters not to attempt the climb, but they went on. Halfway up Ben Hope, Miss Kate, who is slightly lame, sat down to rest and to await the return of her sister, who intended to climb to the summit. After Miss Mary had disappeared from view hgr sister heard the sounds of boulders falling far up on the mountainside.

When evening fell and Mary had not returned, her sister returned in an exhausted condition to the foot of Ben Hope, and told of the falling boulders. ' Gamekeepers, shepherds, and other men searched the mountain for two nights and a day, and then one of them, J.ames Mackay, of Melness, located the body of Miss Wilkinson in a deep gully. She must have fallen a sheer drop of 300 ft. One of the search party stated she had tried to reach the summit by an impossible route, and had loosened boulders which sent her-hurtling to her death. By a tragic coincidence, two days before her death Miss Wilkinson had visited the cemetery, which is close to the sea, and amid beautiful scenery. “What an ideal place to be buried in,” she had remarked. Her coffin was carried on a bier a distance of two miles in relays by men from surrounding districts, including shepherds, gamekeepers, and ghillies who were members of the search party.