When Barry Wilson retired, he dreamed of having more time to relax with his wife on a series of holidays.

But he did not expect freak mudslides, a collapsed airline and an Icelandic volcano to put a spanner in the works of his travel plans.

The 65-year-old could well lay claim to being Oxford’s unluckiest holidaymaker after scoring an unwanted hat-trick of mishaps.

Mr Wilson’s holiday hoodoo started when he booked a two-day break in Edinburgh for his first vacation since retiring as a furniture designer.

In January, he paid £196 for return flights from Oxford to the Scottish capital with Varsity Express.

However, three days before he was set to travel on March 11, Mr Wilson discovered the firm had collapsed.

He is still waiting for a refund.

Hoping for more luck with their second trip, the couple took advice from friends who advised him to visit the beautiful Portuguese island of Madeira in February.

But he was forced to cancel the holiday after the island was hit by floods and mudslides which killed more than 40 people. They switched to a later trip to Cyprus.

It was not a case of third time lucky for the couple as they were among scores of ‘ash refugees’ stranded in Cyprus when volcanic ash closed airspace over much of Europe earlier this month.

Mr Wilson from New Marston said: “When I saw the Edinburgh flights I thought it was a great idea and we really wanted to try it out to support the growth of Oxford Airport.

“It was a great opportunity to have the experience of flying from Kidlington and we were very disappointed we lost my first weekend break.

“We changed our Madeira holiday because they’d had the mudslides and we were due to go out there straight after that.

“We felt guilty that we didn’t go and support them in their hour of need, but we want to go when it is as beautiful as we had heard.”

The couple now plan to visit the island next year.

Their misfortune was completed when their week-long trip to the Cypriot resort of Paphos was unexpectedly extended for four days after the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland.

At least the couple were kept in luxury as their tour operator Thomson upgraded them from bed and breakfast to full board.

He said: “It is nice when you’re sat by the pool, but it crosses your mind ‘what if I can’t get home for a while, what do I need to plan for?’ “You do feel isolated and there were moments when we thought this could be a long haul.

“They say bad luck comes in threes so we hope we have had ours.

“We’ve had a few people ask us ‘Can you let us know when you’re going on holiday again and we’ll try to miss those dates’.”

The entrepreneur behind Varsity, Martin Halstead, said 85 per cent of an estimated 400 passengers whose trips had been cancelled had been refunded.

People still waiting should email pensio.refund@worldticket.net – not Varsity.