Harthope/College Valley

Incident Type: Search

On Sunday evening, we were activated by Northumbria Police for an overdue walker in The Cheviots. He had been dropped at Dunsdale around midday to explore the area and was planning to meet his partner later at Hawsen Burn. When he didn’t arrive, and with no phone signal to make contact, his partner travelled to Wooler and quite rightly raised the alarm.

With concerns about his length of time out on the hill, both teams were placed on standby within five minutes of activation while search plans were drawn up. Team members met with the walker’s partner to confirm key information, and set off to start searching based on this information.

As vehicles and other personnel were travelling, one of our team members located the missing walker in Kirknewton. He had been exploring Bellyside Burn, a known geological location, but then decided to return to Dunsdale before walking out of the College Valley.

A swift and safe resolution to what have could been a long night searching!

The incident involved 18 members for 1 hour 49 minutes.