Grey Mares Knowe

Incident Type: Rescue

Two walkers called Northumbria Police having underestimated how long their intended walk in the Kielder area would take. As daylight faded and weather conditions deteriorated, and with panic setting in, the walkers did exactly the right thing by requesting help. Before contact with the walkers was lost, thankfully they were able pass their location, high up on Grey Mares Knowe. A remote and notoriously difficult location to access let alone descend from in the dark!

Volunteer members from North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team and our Team were duly deployed, along with two 4×4 response vehicles. As resources started to arrive at Scaup Farm, the National Police Air Service (NPAS) helicopter confirmed the location of the walkers. Unfortunately, NPAS were not able to land on and it was left to us to head up the hill towards the walkers on foot.

The first hill party was dropped off on the forest track north of Kielderhead to ‘bushwhack’ their way in the dark and heavy rain up forest rides and the remains of the bridleway towards the open hillside. The second and third hill parties followed soon after carrying rescue kit for a potentially difficult and protracted evacuation.

The walkers were located by the first hill party at 20.35hrs and an assessment of their condition was undertaken by a Remote Rescue Medical Technician and then by one of our Paramedics.

Given the situation and the condition of both walkers, a HM Coastguard helicopter was requested. Rescue 199 from Prestwick was tasked, however, there was some uncertainty whether the helicopter would reach the incident site due to the prevailing weather conditions. A ‘plan B’ was swiftly put into motion, with the remaining members at the RVP deployed onto the hill with another stretcher and additional rescue equipment and Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue Team called for additional personnel.

Thankfully at 22.30hrs Rescue 199 was on scene and landed on close to the incident site. The walkers were swiftly transferred to the helicopter for the short flight down to the farm, where they were handed over to the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) crew for a full assessment.

All that remained was to retrieve our members from the hill who unfortunately had to walk back down!

A long but very successful rescue with a positive outcome for the two walkers.

We would like to thank the farmer at Scaup Farm for their assistance and to Tweed Valley MRT for being willing to head over the border to give us a hand.

The incident involved 20 members for 8 hours 30 minutes. A further 3 Tweed Valley MRT members were responding but were stood down en-route.