THE SEARCH for the remains of Renee Macrae and her three-year-old son Andrew, who police believe may be buried in Dalmagarry Quarry, 12 miles south of Inverness, is nearing the conclusion of its second week.

There are a number of dumper trucks working full time on the excavation of the quarry, and to date they have removed approximately 16,000 tons of earth.

A police spokesman said they were delighted with the progress being made.

Detective Superintendent Gordon Urquhart, the senior investigating officer in the case, said, “Everything is going according to plan. We are continuing methodical excavation of the possible deposition site.

“We will continue sifting through excavated material under the supervision of professors Sue Black (forensic anthropologist) and John Hunter (forensic archaeologist) and their teams.

“We remain on schedule to clear the quarry area,” he added.

The disappearance of Renee and Andrew in 1976 is the longest-running serious investigation undertaken by Northern Constabulary, which was formed the previous year.

Much of the quarry was filled in by 20,000 tons of material from the building of the then new A9.

The area was planted with trees in the early 1980s and nearly 1800 trees had to be felled before excavation work could begin.