Major cliff rescue as man winched to safety in late night drama on Scottish coast

RNLI Arbroath lifeguards at the scene in Arbroath.
RNLI Arbroath lifeguards at the scene in Arbroath. -Credit:RNLI Arbroath


A man was airlifted to hospital off a cliff in Arbroath following a major rescue operation for amost four hours.

Emergency services scrammbled to Seaman’s Grave in the town on Monday night, April 15, following reports of an injured casualty who had fallen, around 10.30pm.

The operation involved RNLI Arbroath, HM Coastguard and the Scottish Ambulance Service and finally came to an add at around 2am this morning.

The man was taken to hospital by a HM Coaguard helicopter.

In a post RNLI Arbroath said: "Arbroath’s Atlantic 85 and D-class lifeboats were involved in a major multiagency rescue effort at the town’s cliffs in the early hours of this morning (16th April).

"The RNLI volunteers were initially tasked at approximately 10:30pm (15th April) to attend an incident at an area of the cliffs known as Seaman’s Grave.

"Working in difficult conditions with colleagues from Scottish Ambulance’s SORT team and HM Coastguard, members of the Arbroath lifeboat crew assisted in administering on scene care to an injured casualty.

"The casualty was successfully extracted from the location at approximately 2.00am by HM Coastguard’s Rescue 151 helicopter from Inverness, before being airlifted to hospital."

Arbroath’s lifeboat operations manager, Ron Churchill, said: “Our crew worked alongside colleagues from the other emergency services to manage a challenging situation that resulted in the successful extraction of a casualty. We would like to express our thanks to all those involved.”

Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.