A group of men rescued a ewe nicknamed Britain’s “loneliest sheep” from a remote rocky shoreline in the Scottish highlands Saturday where it had been stranded for over two years, several reports noted.
The ewe had been at the foot of the cliffs of the Cromarty Firth, an estuary more than 170 miles northeast of Edinburgh, for at least two years, the BBC reported. The farmers reportedly reached 820 feet down the cliff face via a winch and found her in a cave.
A female kayaker sailing around Brora village near the Cromarty Firth first spotted the ewe in 2021 and again in 2023 during another kayaking trip, Ben Dalscone, one of the farmers involved in the rescue and owner of Dalscone Farm, said. By then, the ewe was heavy with overgrown matted wool and in need of shearing, he added.
“With a fair bit of sketchiness, some makeshift abseiling, a lot of pulling, a lot of effort, luckily a good weather window, we managed to rescue her,” Graeme Parker, another farmer, said.
“We’ve named her Fiona,” group leader Cammy Wilson, a policeman-turned-sheep farmer and BBC Scotland presenter, said.
The Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) said it was not equipped for the rescue effort but was present “to ensure the welfare of the animal,” per a statement.
Fiona was shorn Sunday and will make herself a new home at Dalscone Farm, Wilson said. (RELATED: Scottish Zoo Will Adopt Asiatic Black Bear Traumatized By Ukraine War)
The rescuers complained of social media criticism from animal rights activists alleging that farmers abandoned the sheep by the cliffs. “That wasn’t the case at all, the farmers do care, it was just an extremely treacherous position she was in, extremely dangerous,” Wilson said. “We got a great result today but a slip of a foot and we would have just been fools with good intentions,” he added, referencing the treacherous terrain where the rescue occurred.
Dalscone Farm needed police protection from the activists with placards saying “Free Fiona,” Dalscone said in a separate video. “Completely ridiculous,” he added.