Walker rescued from Bone Caves in Assynt
A walker has been rescued after falling at the site of some of Britain's most mysterious and longest caves, suffering "serious" injuries.
Twelve members of Assynt Mountain Rescue Team were called to the Bone Caves network in Sutherland.
The alarm was raised at 4.13pm on Thursday by other walkers.
The Coastguard search and rescue helicopter from Stornoway airlifted the injured woman to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. Her condition is unknown.
Assynt Mountain Rescue Team leader Ben Dyson said: "The well equipped walker took a fall and sustained serious injuries.”
"We packaged her for the helicopter which did a great job. The cloud cover was down to 500 feet and it was a tricky winch. They did very well.
The Assynt team were called out again just before midnight on Thursday to support the Scottish Ambulance Service evacuate an ill elderly casualty in a remote location near Rosehall.
The caves complex near Inchnadamph are where the remains of the only known wild polar bear in Britain were found.
The Bone Caves are popular with hillwalkers and also scientists because of the discoveries made at the site in the past of prehistoric remains of animals, including bears, and humans.
A polar bear skull excavated from one of the caves is the only known remains of the species in Britain. It probably dates to about 18,000 years ago when massive ice sheets covered much of the country at the height of the last ice age.
The creature's bones were first unearthed in 1927 but it was only when the remains were re-evaluated that scientists realised that they once belonged to a polar bear that lived at a time when the climate in Britain was in the grip of a deep freeze.
Dontations to Assynt Mountain Rescue Team can be made at: https://assynt-mountain-rescue-team.raisely.com/
