LOGGERHEAD turtles that were nursed back to health at Weymouth's Sea Life Park have been returned to the open seas off the coast of Gran Canaria.

Skye and Holly, who were found on the brink of death on Scottish beaches, were looked after for several months after being airlifted to Dorset.

Skye, named after the island he was found on last July, is missing a flipper, probably due to net entanglement or a shark attack.

Holly washed up in December in Ardmucknish Bay and was found by a 16-year-old boy out walking his dog.

Both were initially nursed by staff at the Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary near Oban but completed their recoveries at the Weymouth turtle sanctuary.

Marine expert Sarah Leaney, who runs the sanctuary, travelled with her two patients to Las Palmas to see them return safely back to the wild.

She said: "This mission brought the sanctuary's first sea turtle rescues to a successful conclusion and made all the hard work involved in caring for them worthwhile.

"It was a very moving experience watching them power their way through the surf out to sea again and back to where they belong."

Skye and Holly were both exhausted and hypothermic when first rescued.

Skye's stay at Weymouth had to be extended to allow a nasty wound to the underside of his shell to fully heal.

Holly was moved to Weymouth in February and convalesced alone in a quarantine tank suited to her smaller size.

She is only 12 inches long while Skye is nearly one metre and weighs over 20 kilos.

Loggerhead turtles follow an 8,000-mile migration route from their birthplace in the Caribbean across the Atlantic to the Canary Islands and back.

It is thought the few wanderers who turn up on the UK's shores get pushed off course by the Gulf Stream.

The theory is supported by the fact that most occurrences involve turtles either weakened by the loss of a flipper, like Skye, or very young turtles like Holly.