Man rescued after 24 hours stuck on remote Highland cliff
- Published
The alarm was raised on Monday lunchtime and the man was found on a small ledge
A hillwalker spent 24 hours stuck on a cliff edge above a Highland loch before being rescued by a lifeboat crew.
The 72-year-old man got into difficulty near Kinloch Hourn on Loch Hourn in the west Highlands on Sunday.
But there is little to no mobile phone reception in the remote area and he was only able to contact the coastguard on Monday afternoon.
Kyle RNLI lifeboat crew found the man and got him to safety in a rescue operation lasting more than six hours.
A spokesman for the RNLI said the man was an experienced hillwalker who had become trapped in an "impossible situation, unable to go forward or back".
The search was carried out by the Kyle of Lochalsh-based RNLI crew and members of Glenelg Mountain Rescue Team, after the alarm was raised at about 13:20 on Monday.
It began at 16:00 with the Glenelg team dropped off at the head of the sea loch, an area where there is no electronic communication signal, according to the RNLI.
The lifeboat crew headed back out of the loch to re-establish communications with the coastguard.
By this point, the hillwalker had been able to get in contact with emergency services again to say he had spotted the lifeboat, but it was too far away for him to signal to the crew.
Kyle RNLI picked up the Glenelg team and headed back into Loch Hourn to make a search. The man was eventually found on a small ledge just above the waterline at 19:00.
He was reunited with his family in Kyle of Lochash about 30 minutes later.
Members of Glenelg MRT beginning their search
The search and rescue operation lasted more than six hours
A spokesman for Kyle RNLI said: "This gentleman is an experienced walker who had unfortunately become trapped in an impossible situation, unable to go forward or back.
"Due to the location, he had no mobile signal from the time he had become trapped until Monday lunchtime, when he noticed he had a very weak one.
"He was then able to get in touch with the emergency services who launched a search and rescue operation."
He said: "We regularly train with other rescue agencies and by working well with everyone involved, we were able to return him back to his family safely."
Kinloch Hourn is a small community at the end of a single track road on the edge of Knoydart, an area often dubbed as the "last great wilderness".