Couple's joy as lost wedding ring found on Isle of Lewis beach

A wedding ring lost in the sea at a beach in the Western Isles has been found and returned to its relieved owner.

Daryll Leslie's wife Carey hand-crafted the gold band for their marriage on 28 September 2019.

Last month, Mr Leslie joined friends on a trip to the Isle of Lewis and the ring slipped off during a swim.

An islander who answered a social media appeal for help, found the ring using a metal detector.

The wedding band was returned to the Leslies' home in Edinburgh on the day of their second wedding anniversary.

Mr Leslie told BBC Radio Scotland's Mornings, with Kaye Adams programme he only realised he had lost his ring a few hours after the cold water swim.

He said: "I was gutted. Carey and I had spent a day making each others wedding rings.

"It cannot be replaced. I would have had to ask her to make it again. She was gutted for me."

Mr Leslie said the swim had been in an area of beach bordered by rocks and at high tide, narrowing the potential search area once the tide had gone out.

Mr Leslie made his own efforts to find the ring at low tide - raking the surface of the sandy beach with garden tools, but without success.

When he returned home to Edinburgh, he put an appeal out on social media asking local visitors to the beach if they could keep an eye out for the ring.

Stephen MacLeod, among islanders who went to look for the ring, found it using a metal detector after a couple of hours of searching.

Mr Leslie said he felt "incredible relief" it had been found thanks to the help of "lovely islanders".

The brother of one of Mr Leslie's friends on Lewis hand-delivered the ring while on a visit to the mainland.