A DAY'S stroll on Arthur's Seat gave one elderly walker much more than he bargained for after an unlucky stumble.
The 89-year-old man lost his footing and tumbled down the side of a cliff face.
Luckily, he landed on a ledge but was left dangling precariously until an elaborate rescue mission eventually carried him to safety.
The pensioner had been out walking since 10am yesterday morning when, at around 4pm, he lost his footing and fell.
Had he missed the ledge, he would almost certainly have tumbled a further 100 feet onto the road below.
Remarkably though, he was uninjured and only lost a shoe in the episode.
It is understood the man thought he had discovered a short cut, but when he pursued the opening he tripped and fell.
He called out from the ledge until a passing woman heard his calls and phoned the emergency services.
Julie English, 42, from Gilmerton, stood below and consoled the man while she waited for help to arrive.
She said: "I was just walking along and heard someone calling out.
"I looked up and saw him sitting on the ledge. Other passers by didn't have a phone signal but I did.
"The police were here within a couple of minutes.
"He said he had been out walking since 10am and had tripped. I sat and spoke to him for a bit and he seemed remarkably calm."
The road leading up to Arthur's Seat was closed instantly as the fire engine with a massive ladder on top took position in an attempt to reach him.
The vehicle had to be repositioned several times to ensure the ladder could get as close to the man as possible.
When that failed another mountain rescuer descended from above with a safety rope and helped usher the man, who had sat calmly for around two hours with his leg resting on a rock, into the basket.
Motorists and walkers looked on in bewilderment as emergency vehicles screamed round the narrow roads of Holyrood Park.
Some took photos of the man - dressed in a shirt and tie - as he perched on the ledge.
One man who witnessed the rescue said: "It's hard to see how he could have got there – you can't go up and you can't go down.
"He's been pretty lucky by the looks of it."
A park ranger who oversaw the operation said: "It would have been quite a sore one because the gorse is pointed.
"If he lost a shoe then at worse it would have been quite painful."
But despite the dramatic nature of the fall the man appeared unhurt as he paced across to the ambulance, which took him to the ERI as a precaution and to be checked over.
Paramedics said he was cold and shaken with a few cuts, but otherwise in a reasonable state.
Fire service group manager Jeff Douce co-ordinated the rescue effort.
He said: "We do train for things like this and had a similar exercise a couple of days ago.
"Because he was fairly comfortable and not hanging by his fingernails we had a bit of time to get it absolutely right.
"We were able to speak to him and we wasn't injured – if anything he was a little embarrassed to have got himself into that situation."
The full article contains 562 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
