AN ELDERLY man was trapped upside down overnight on a Highland croft after catching his leg on a wire fence.
Kenneth Bain, who is in his eighties, was stuck for eight hours before being rescued at about 7am close to property he owns near Dornoch, Sutherland.
It is understood that Mr Bain slipped on a makeshift stile at Fourpenny, near Skelbo, about 11p
m the previous evening. He became stuck, lying with his head and back on the ground, but with one leg attached to the top of the fence.
The widower from Inverness was found by Thomas Mackay, a farmer, and taken to Raigmore Hospital, where his condition yesterday was said to be "comfortable". Mr Mackay said: "He was very cold and badly hurt and he was drifting in and out of consciousness.
"He had a block of wood on either side of the fence and was stepping over it when one leg went down between the wires. We got him out, called 999."
Mr Mackay said it was lucky that he and his wife had gone to collect a bull from the croft they rent from the pensioner, otherwise Mr Bain may have gone unnoticed for a lot longer.
Mr Mackay said it was also very fortunate that the weather overnight had been wet and windy but not very cold, otherwise the outcome to Mr Bain's ordeal might have been more serious.
Mr Bain, from the Merkinch area of Inverness, inherited the croft from his mother and visits it regularly. He had been staying in a small house he owns on the land and had suffered a burst pipe inside the property.
He had gone outside to turn off the water and, after repairing the leak, had gone back outside to turn the water back on when the accident happened. His nephew, Kenneth Bain, described his uncle as a "hardy" man who was recovering well.
A Northern Constabulary spokesman said the pensioner had been lucky to be found when he was. He added: "He was injured, but seemed OK in himself and was chatting away before being taken to hospital."
Donnie Kerr, an Inverness councillor, who knows Mr Bain, said:
"Despite being in his eighties, he's a very active man, and you often see him out cycling or in the garden.
"But lying out in the wind and rain will have come as a shock to him, so we'll have to wait and see if his lifestyle changes once he's out of hospital."
It was the third such incident in the Highlands in the past two years. Last year a man from a Caithness nursing home was found caught on a fence near Wick.
In February, 2006, William Fraser, 83, from Inverness, was trapped upside down for 20 hours on a barbed wire fence in sub-zero temperatures in the city's Torvean golf course.
He had to have his leg amputated and died in June that year.
The full article contains 497 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
