"Novice DIY'er" wrote
| Am 75% through a kitchen re-build. Now, the lurverly new halogen
| lights we've bought from B&Q need to be fiited. Removed old
| fitting to see what I assumed was the normal two wires
| (black and red).

There should always be an earth at every point.

| Fine, open box for shiney new light fitting and 'SH*T', it's
| got an earth wire as well! Hmmm, who nicked my earth cable
| in the attic? Had a wee peak behind the light switch
| and ITS got an earth but none coming down from the attic!

It's very possible that Bobby Bodgit the previous owner just cut the earth
wire back to the sheating of the twin-and-earth and it's not visible. If
there's any spare cable you can pull through that might be sufficient to
find the earth. It needs a piece of green-and-yellow-sleeving on it.

| So, do I need to crawl about in the attic to try and trace
| the wires back,

Enough might pull down through the hole.

| add an extra earth wire and strap it to a pipe,

Err no, run it back to the main earth point on the consumer unit. However if
this point isn't earthed are any of the others? What sort of condition is
the wiring in generally?

| see where the light switch wire goes to and
| connect it to that,

You would have to check that whatever you connect it to really *is* earthed.

| set up the camping bed in the garage again?

Take the lights back to B&Q and buy some double-insulated ones?

Owain