Less than a week into 1999 the Black Bridge was the scene of a life and death drama when a policeman jumped into the icy waters of the River Ness and saved a man who’d fallen in. The policeman, Sergeant Wemyss, would be ‘eternally grateful’ if he never had to do it again.

The man was spotted going over the Ness Bridge by a CCTV camera operator. He had already failed to grab hold of several lifebelts by the time he had been carried under Friars Bridge. Sergeant Wemyss could see the man was unconscious and knew the next bridge, the Black Bridge, was the last chance before he was swept into the harbour.

"He’d have been maybe 30 yards from the bank on the Gilbert Street side. I thought initially I might be able to get him from there but the water was flowing far too fast," said the force hero.

Sergeant Wemyss raced to the bridge. He said: "I went to the harbour side and climbed over and dropped down to one of the legs of the bridge. The plan was that someone would then drop the lifebelt but he was already out from under the bridge - I couldn’t reach him and if I didn’t get him then he was gone."

"So I jumped. I got hold of him by his clothes and I had a look for the lifebelt which I knew would have been thrown down after me but in the dark I couldn’t see it so it was just a case of swim for it towards the Anderson Street side of the river. I pretty much knew we had to get to shore before we reached the railway bridge because if we went to the other side into the harbour we were both gone."

The rescued man spent four days in intensive care in Raigmore. Peter himself was treated for the effects of cold and water ingestion. "No, it doesn’t taste good," he said shaking his head violently.

Sergeant Wemyss and top Inverness cop Chief Superintendent Ramsaay McGhee have gone to great pains to ensure that no members of the public enter the river to attempt a rescue. "I had 3rd and 4th thoughts of not going in. It was very much a case of that if I hadn’t gone in somebody else would. A lot of folk were on the bridge and there were people taking their jackets off. Three or four folk in the water would have been a real recipe for disaster," said Sergeant Wemyss.

Peter Wemyss is a very strong swimmer. "The water flows that fast even at waist deep it would still knock you off your feet. You need to be a very strong swimmer. If your’re struggling your’re no use to anybody." His advice is to use the lifebelts.

Sadly the force also has to deal with people stealing or throwing the lifebelts in for a laugh. "It may seem like a joke at the time but it could actually cost somebody their life one day," warned Peter.

There is a special warning for people in Merkinch who are likely to see someone in trouble at the Black Bridge. "The difficulty with the Black Bridge is once you’re under the railway bridge you’re in the harbour and there’s nowhere you can reach people from...by the time the harbour launch or lifeboats got out you’d probably be gone."

Two years ago Peter rescued a girl from the river for which he won the Royal Humane Society’s highest lifesaving award. After surviving his second rescue drama he said: "The most difficult thing was going home to my wife with my uniform in a plastic bag again. I got a serious ear bashing from my mother-in-law."