THE BODY of a 59-year-old hiker could not be recovered for almost 24 hours from a Connemara mountain because of the inaccessibility of the location where he had fallen at the weekend.
It was almost 3pm yesterday when the body of PJ Fox from Oranmore, Galway, was taken from Glenacolly Mountain, overlooking the Erriff Valley, on the Mayo/Galway border.
Mr Fox, a retired oil company employee who had worked in the Middle East, had been hiking with his brothers Larry and John at about 3pm on Sunday when he slipped and fell.
Unable to raise the alarm by mobile phone because of the poor reception, the brothers trekked across the hills to a public roadway for more than an hour, where they raised the alarm. Members of Mayo Mountain Rescue failed to retrieve the body on Sunday night and the search was resumed yesterday. Although a Coast Guard helicopter pinpointed the body at about 10am, it could not be removed immediately due to the difficult terrain.
It was mid-afternoon before the body was taken from the mountain with the aid of specialised equipment and brought to Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar, where a postmortem will be held.
Westport-based Garda Supt Michael Murray said the search for and removal of the body had proved challenging because of the terrain and low cloud cover.
Mr Fox, who is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter, recently retired from his employment in the Middle East and came back to his native Oranmore to live.