FFK Blog Fehmeeda Farid Khan Blog for Unsolved Miseries
Located in the Highlands region of northwest Scotland, rumours abound about the small village of Durness and its surrounds. As the scene of cherished childhood memories for John Lennon, it is said to have inspired some of the lyrics to The Beatles’ song ‘In My Life’. Others say that the area is steeped in folklore and superstition, ranging from a local cave in which the Devil once hid to stories of highwaymen and whiskey smugglers traversing the area. In contrast to these speculations, one thing is certain about Durness: it is remote and isolated. The area is one of the most sparsely populated parts of Western Europe, and for much of the year, locals are outnumbered by tourists who visit the area to observe its stunning natural beauty and rugged scenery.
In the summer of 1982, the area became the final resting place for one of these visitors. The circumstances of this man’s death, as well as the efforts he clearly made to conceal his identity, have given rise to an enduring but little-known mystery. There are virtually no online sources which provide information about Durness Man beyond his physical characteristics. Based on a deep dive into the newspaper coverage of the time, this write-up aims to gather all the details available to us about Durness Man’s life and death. Together, they present an intriguing but frustratingly incomplete puzzle.
The Discovery
It was on August 18th, 1982 that locals first noticed a white car parked half a mile up a rough track between Durness and the settlement of Sarsgrum. This track led to a quarry, but it was rarely used even by locals, serving only as a means to access the rugged hillside for the purpose of peat cutting. (Peat is a compacted mass of decomposed organic materials that covers much of the Scottish Highlands, which is traditionally cut and dried for use as a heating fuel.) The car was not examined more closely until August 29th, when an inquisitive local who went to the area to cut peat for winter made the startling discovery of the man’s body, which was still seated inside. By all indications, he had been dead for ten or more days at this point.
Police from the Dornoch branch of the Northern Constabulary travelled nearly two hours to the scene in an attempt to establish who the man was. However, they quickly realised that the man had gone to considerable effort to obscure his identity.
The Victim
The man was believed to be of White European ancestry, and was estimated to be somewhere between 25 and 40 years old. He had red hair (described as ‘reddish’ in one newspaper article), which was cut short. The man had a slim build, weighing approximately 9-10 stone (57-63 kg) and had stood between 5’6 and 5’7 (168-170 cm) in life.
The clothing of the Durness Man was examined, but it was fairly nondescript. He was wearing a red jersey/sweater, a brown shirt, brown cord trousers, blue socks, a brown jacket, and size seven tan coloured shoes. A quartz Timex watch was also located with his body. It is interesting to note that none of these items appear to have had brand labels attached to them – it is not clear whether this was a deliberate act of concealment by the man, or whether these details simply went unrecorded during the initial investigation.
With regard to his cause of death, police established that the man had succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning. It appears that he parked his car in the remote location, and died as exhaust fumes entered his car.
The Initial Investigation
From the outset, the lengths to which the man had gone to conceal his identity were a major obstacle to the investigation. The man carried no identification papers, and his car contained no clues of value: the only reported contents were a bottle of vodka and a copy of the Economist from the week beginning August 7th. One newspaper reported that the man may have been a businessman, but the basis of this speculation is not clear.
Only a week after the body’s discovery, the police were appealing for any information from people who encountered the man as he travelled to Durness:
‘Someone, somewhere along this man’s 700 mile last journey must have seen him or spoken to him. He must have stopped off to buy petrol and to have something to eat.’
If any members of the public were forthcoming with their sightings, these were not reported publicly.
The Car
The biggest lead in the search for Durness Man’s identity was his car, a white 1973 Renault 16TS with registration PGL 513L.
There appears to have been some initial confusion about who the car belonged to, with early newspaper reports stating that the ‘owner of the car had been unable to identify the driver’. Subsequent reports state that the car was sold in Bristol in the first week of August. The buyer was one ‘Michael John Green’ who gave his address as 10 Charlotte Street, Bristol.
Further enquiries revealed that both this name and address were false. The cash used to pay for the car was withdrawn from a Barclays bank branch in Bristol, but the bank did not have a customer by the name of ‘Michael John Green’ in its records. While there were two possible addresses corresponding to ‘10 Charlotte Street’ in the Bristol area, one of these was in an industrial estate, while the other was a vacant block of flats. Just like that, a promising lead had proved worthless – the man had covered his tracks with total effectiveness.
(As a side note, UK vehicle registration records seem to indicate that the Renault was sold on, as its last registration papers were issued in December 1983 and road tax was paid up until June of 1984. You have to wonder if the car’s later drivers were aware of its history…)
Conclusions and Questions
The last media reporting I could find which included new information about Durness Man appeared on 6th September, barely over a week after his body was discovered. This report mentioned that crime had been ruled out as an explanation for the man’s death, but an inquest would ultimately decide if he had died by suicide. However, I was unable to uncover any sources that confirmed whether this inquest even occurred, let alone its contents and findings.
To me, the mystery of Durness Man lies not in his manner of death, but rather in the circumstances that led to it. It seems pretty clear that his death was a meticulously planned suicide: foul play was ruled out by investigators, and it’s hard to come up with a theory of accidental death which fits the facts and context. Rather, the reason I’m so curious about this case is how totally and effectively the man was able to conceal his identity. After this write-up, I’m left with several questions:
- Where are the man’s remains today? Because all newspaper reporting about him ceases so abruptly, we don’t know if he was buried (or where his remains are, if he was). In the era of genetic genealogy, DNA seems like the only way we could ever hope to discover this man’s identity, but it is not an option if his remains were lost or cremated.
- Were details about the man’s true identity somewhere in the bank system of Barclays? If not, how did he withdraw money for the car purchase? If so, are those details still available? Bank accounts of missing individuals sometimes remain open for very long periods of time, but then again it would likely be impossible to identify this man from the bank’s vast customer base simply by screening for bank accounts that had been inactive for 40+ years.
- Is the purchaser of the car the same person who was found dead in it? The answer to this question seems to be ‘yes’, especially considering the false details given by the purchaser. However, there seems to be some confusion on this point based on early reporting – did the seller and bank teller ever confirm that the man found in the car was the person they met?
- Did the man have any ties to Scotland? The man’s ‘reddish’ hair evokes a classic stereotype of the red-headed Scot. However, it is equally plausible that the man simply drove until the road ran out: Durness is about as far as it is physically possible to go from Bristol.
- Did anyone ever come forward to say that they had encountered the man during his journey north to Durness? If so, did they have any information of value? For that matter, the 700-mile journey is not immensely long and could be done in a day, but the sparsity of the possessions in the car is surprising. Was there anything at all else in the car except the bottle of vodka and the issue of the Economist?
- Was the man’s absence ever noted by the people in his life, and did they ever report him missing? If so, is there a known missing person whose characteristics match this man? If he was never reported missing, why not?
- Did the inquest into the man’s death ever occur? Did it turn up any additional information which is not public knowledge? For that matter, is there any additional information which is publicly available which slipped through my net during my research? It can be easy to miss information when using online newspaper archives?
