A Scots pensioner "couldn't remember where he was" after taking a horror fall while out walking in a remote area with no signal.
John Allan and his family have hailed the "amazing strangers" who rushed to his aid after he hit his head while out walking with his wife Ara and their son and daughter-in-law on Saturday.
The experiences hillwalkers, from Edinburgh, left from Harlaw Reservoir for what was supposed to be a gentle walk before the terrifying incident happened.
Unlike some of the previous hikes the family had been on, the afternoon stroll was expected to be a relaxed event - but things took an unexpected turn after John, 68, tripped on the remote path.
He hit his head against the ground and was bleeding heavily from the head and his hands, reports Edinburgh Live.
John's wife Ara said that they had been finishing cleaning him up when he began to show serious signs of concussion.
Ara said: "We're all really experienced walkers, we had only been about 6km into our walk when John just tripped up and fell, my son had tried to grab his bag as he went down but he missed him.
"I turned around and it was like something out of a film, there was blood pooling around his head, there was a gouge out of his head and his hands were also cut badly, but he didn't lose consciousness.
"We got him up on a rock and just started cleaning and tidying him up, we had some bandages and wipes. It was only after we got him tidied up we realised he wasn't coherent.
"He kept asking 'what happened', 'what am I doing here', 'have I hurt myself'. He also asked me why my son and daughter in law were there, I explained they were visiting for the weekend and he couldn't remember that they were staying with us.
"He had no real memory from Friday afternoon and it was 2pm on Saturday."
Quickly becoming concerned for John's welfare, Ara and her family realised they had no phone signal to contact the air ambulance, and weren't sure how far away they were from help.
However, the group were thankfully helped by passing by walkers, who explained there was a cottage at The Howe with a car, before getting them round to the building nearby.
From there, Ara said the help they had received from everyone "had been fantastic" and had "made them feel secure" at a time of severe stress.
She added: "We managed to get John round there, and the two ladies were so helpful, one of them drove us round to the Flotterstone Inn. When we were in the car John was asking questions again about who everyone was and why we were there.
"The people at the Inn were great too, they phoned us a taxi and it just so happened the taxi driver was a retired paramedic, so he was so helpful.
"It was a really frightening experience, we're all extremely experienced hill walkers so never expected something like this to happen when we were out for a stroll. We thought we'd just have to patch him up, at the time we just didn't think he would have concussion."
Thankfully, after arriving at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, John's MRI scans showed he was going to make a full recovery, with most of his memory now returning apart from around 90 minutes after the fall.
Extremely grateful to all who helped them, Ara said: "I really want to thank all the walkers that stopped to help, the ladies with the car, everyone at the inn, the taxi driver and the hospital staff.
"I had reached out on Facebook but hadn't heard anything from the ladies, I didn't get their names but it would be lovely to thank them properly."
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