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A woman unwittingly wore an engagement ring hidden inside a necklace by her partner for a year and a half.

Anna only found out her boyfriend Terry had hidden the ring in the piece of jewellery when he broke it open to propose to her at Smoo Cave in the Scottish Highlands.

The large coastal cave complex near Durness in Sutherland had been on a "bucket list" of places the Australian couple wanted to visit.

Anna and Terry have asked for their surnames to be kept out of the public domain because of the media attention their engagement has attracted since telling family and friends.

While Terry proposed to his girlfriend back in November last year, it has only now started to gain worldwide interest from news websites and magazines.

Terry made the necklace from Tasmanian Huon pine and the inside of a sea shell. It was hollow inside and this was where the ring was hidden.

He gave the necklace to Anna as a gift to mark the first anniversary of their relationship.

Terry said: "She wore it every day and everywhere we went, and pretty much never took it off.

"There were some occasions where I was really worried.

"At one point, I thought she was going to trade it with a blacksmith at a market - the blacksmith loved the necklace, and she loved the blacksmith's work - but luckily I didn't need to crash tackle her.

"My biggest moment of panic was when we went through airport security the first time. I hadn't thought about the fact that she might be asked to put it through the x-ray, which could have very quickly turned into an airport security proposal."

When they finally visited Smoo Cave, Terry came up with a story to get Anna to take the necklace off and break the pendant open to reveal the ring.

Terry said: "She stood there dazed for a second, trying to work out what was going on, and then it dawned and she said 'yes' with all the excitement in the world.

"After she calmed down she suddenly stopped moving, stared at me and said: 'Wait... it's been in there the entire time?!! I could have lost it you idiot'.

"She was quite a hilarious mix of happy and angry."

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