THE death of an estate worker who fell 150ft from a mountainside was a "tragic" accident, a sheriff has ruled.
James Steele, 32, a former soldier and a father-of-two, was gathering sheep and lambs for shearing from Ben Cruachan, near Loch Awe, when he fell from a rocky outcrop on August 8 last year.
He died at the scene from a head injury. A Fatal Accident Inquiry in Oban heard Mr Steele, the son of retired ghillie and deerstalker Donald Steele, was found by farm manager Daniel MacLaughlin lying dead at the bottom of a cliff with the dogs by his side.
In her formal determination, Sheriff Ruth Anderson, QC, said: "Mr Steele was appropriately clothed and shod and he was undertaking a task he had done before and in an area of mountain he knew well.
"Everything pointed to his death being an accident with tragic consequences."
Sheriff Anderson said she had found no defects in the working systems that contributed to Mr Steele's death and no reasonable precautions could have been taken to avoid the tragedy.
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