A 38-YEAR-OLD woman has been rescued after becoming stranded on the Pennine Way, as Hurricane Ophelia made landfall in Scotland.

On Monday (October 16), Border Search and Rescue Unit received a call for assistance from the walker, who had had suffered a sprained ankle the previous day.

The woman slipped while descending from Auchope Cairn on the final leg of her 268-mile Pennine Way walk from Edale.

She managed to get to the refuge hut and decided to spend the night there in the hope that she would have recovered sufficiently to make her own way off the hill in the morning.

Still unable to walk on Monday morning and with the weather deteriorating, she decided to call for assistance.

The team made their way to the remote Sourhope Farm in the Bowmont valley – the closest road to that section of the route, and accepted the generous help of farmer Rob Flintoff, who ferried a couple of team-members and a stretcher to the hut on his RTV.

After establishing that no medical treatment was required she was transported down the hill and transferred to a team vehicle for onward transportation.

Team-leader Stuart Fuller-Shapcott said: "The lady was clearly competent and had completed more than ninety percent of her walk when she had her accident.

"It’s a pretty steep bit of ground coming off Auchope Cairn, with loose rocks and tussocks, and she was simply unlucky.

"She did well to reach the safety of the refuge hut, and we’re glad she made the call when she did.

"A few additional hours’ delay could have meant our having to evacuate her either by stretcher or helicopter, which in the storm that blew up in the afternoon would have been a much more serious undertaking."