Kids marooned

More than 40 children from Paisley were marooned in a hotel by the great Highland blizzard at the beginning of 1978.

They were all safe and well.

Hopes of a reunion with their parents were dashed when a rescue bid was postponed because of deteriorating Arctic weather conditions.

Police surveying the escape route from a helicopter reported a new enemy – fog – while rising winds whipped up more snow drifts and stretches of road remained impassable because of ice, and snow ploughs failed to clear on the route to Elgin.

The weekend skiing party from Stanely Green High School had now been trapped in the hotel at Granton-on-Spey, Morayshire for threeand-a-half days.

The pupils, aged 11 to 17, and a group of 10 teachers were to face an exhausting 260-mile round trip by coach to Aberdeen by way of Elgin and the main road south down the east coast when police finally decided it was safe enough to escort a huge convoy of vehicles.

Minutes before the ‘stand down’order was relayed to pupils, who had already packed their bags, English teacher and trip organiser Mrs Eleanor Perritt told of the remarkable high spirits which had prevailed during the ordeal.

But later, about half of the children were treated by a doctor, with some ordered to bed, after an attack by a mystery gastric bug. They later recovered.