A holidaymaker found herself marooned on a remote Scottish island after she mistook the tide time for a place of the same name in Canada – more than 3500 miles away.
The 78 year old had to be rescued by a local lifeboat crew after she risked becoming stranded on the uninhabited outcrop overnight.
The woman, who had been walking on Eilean Ighe, near the west coast village of Arisaig, Inverness, was shocked when she returned to her cross-over point to find the tide had come in and she was stuck.
She made a 999 call to the Stornoway Coastguard on the Isle of Lewis who arranged for a lifeboat in Mallaig ten miles away to help.
When the lifeboat arrived, the woman told the crew she had been monitoring the tide with a tidal app on her phone. However when they checked, they discovered that she had been looking at the tides for Arisaig, Nova Scotia in Canada and not Arisaig, Scotland.
Michael Currie, who was in charge of the lifeboat during last month’s call out, confirmed the woman had been looking at the tide thousands of miles away.
Michael, 65, said: “We got the call about 5pm. The woman had thought she had plenty of time to explore but when she got to the crossing point, which is about 200 metres long, she found the tide was in.
“She had been able to walk there when the tide was out. The woman was adamant that she had the right tide time until she showed us her phone.
“Thankfully she had the phone with her or she could have been stuck there to the next day. There was no way she could have swum back.
“She thought there was only one Arisaig in the world but then discovered there were two.”
“At the end of the day there was no harm done and we all got home in time for tea.”
The app had given the woman, who is from England, a later time for when the tide would be in.
After crews arrived, the lifeboat, the Henry Alston Hewatt, lowered a two person inflatable into the water which collected the elderly woman safely from the island.
She was then transferred to the lifeboat and the crew took her back to Mallaig where she was staying.
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