A QUARRY which was searched twice in the hunt for a missing mother and son is to be reopened.
Dalmagarry Quarry, situated off the A9 just south of Inverness, became the focus of the investigation into the disappearance of Renee MacRae and her three-year-old son Andrew almost 40 years ago.
Officers believed the bodies of the pair could have been buried there as the site was not far from where Mrs MacRae's burning BMW car was found.
However no trace of the mother and son were found and the site is now being reopened by quarry masters Pat Munro Ltd to provide materials for the dualling of the A9, which will start later this year.
Mrs MacRae's sister, Morag Govans, who lives in Inverness, said she was intrigued by the reopening.
She said: "I don't have a lot of hope but you just never know. I never thought that quarry would be opened up again."
Mrs MacRae and her son Andrew vanished in November 1976.
She had been travelling to meet her lover Bill MacDowell, an accountant in her millionaire husband's building company who was Andrew's biological father.
Her car was found burning in a layby near the quarry. A bloodstain was found in the boot and a murder inquiry was launched.
In 2004, a cold case review saw the quarry dug up again in a renewed search for the bodies but again nothing was found.
Brian Munro, managing director of Pat Munro Ltd, said: "The quarry does have a bit of a history. The police carried out a full excavation of the old quarry works and they were able to eliminate the quarry.
"We hope to open up later this year, in time for the first phase of the A9 works.
"That is the primary reason but we hope that it will have a life beyond that."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article