Thrunton Woods

Two walkers and their dog had become disoriented in Thrunton Woods and were unable to relocate themselves despite several attempts. Northumbria Police requested Mountain Rescue’s support in locating the walkers.

The duty controller, operating on behalf of North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team and ourselves, initiated a limited response to retrieve the walkers from their predicament. The location of the walkers was confirmed using PhoneFind and a response vehicle with two members on board was deployed from Rothbury.

Due to a number of access points being blocked by fallen trees from Storm Arwen, the Mountain Rescue volunteers had to approach the area to the east of Castle Hill from the north. From the forest edge due to further tree fall access was only possible on foot.

Throughout the Mountain Rescue tactical commander maintained contact with the walkers and updated them on progress. The walkers were located an hour after the initial request from the Police in the middle of an area of significant tree fall. Both walkers were relieved and very appreciative of our efforts to locate them. All that remained was to retrace the route back to the response vehicle on the edge of the wood and transport the walkers back to the main car park.

The walkers did exactly the right thing by calling the Police and requesting Mountain Rescue. Due to amount of tree fall in the area, they would have potentially put themselves a more risk by trying to find a way through.

The incident involved 4 Team members for 2 hours.