Dramatic night-time rescue at Fairhead, Ballycastle

Rescue helicopter scrambled as climber rescued from cliff face

A major sea and air rescue operation was carried out at Fairhead yesterday in response to a climber in distress.  The climber got into difficulty after high winds affected his climbing lines, sending him off course and leaving him stuck on the 600ft cliff.

Coastguard teams from Ballycastle were backed up by Coleraine in response to the incident.  They were joined by the RNLI lifeboat from Redbay and the NI Ambulance Service.  The situation was also deemed serious enough to scramble a 999 Rescue helicopter from Prestwick.

However once the chopper arrived, the high winds meant that all teams  agreed that the safest option was to sent a Coastguard member down to retreive the stricken climber from the cliff face.

The casualty was then brought to the cliff edge by one of the Coastguard's 'cliff technicians', where he was assessed by the medical team.  Upon assessment, the climber was found to be uninjured.