Woman and four children airlifted after rowing boat takes on water in Highland loch

A woman and four children have been airlifted to safety after their rowing boat started taking on water in a Highland loch.

The group called 999 when they got into difficulty on Loch Garry, near Invergarry, at around 11.15am on Saturday.

They managed to reach land in their boat but came ashore in an inaccessible area and were trapped there.

The coastguard helicopter from Inverness winched them aboard and flew them to safety.

Loch Garry. Pic: Sabine Dettmer

Fort William coastguard rescue team, police, the fire service and ambulance service were also called out to the incident.

A coastguard spokesman said: “The boat was a rowing boat which started taking on a bit of water so they tried to get to the other side, and got ashore but ended up getting stuck.

“They got ashore in an area inaccessible by road.”

The woman and children, aged between five and 14, were staying in holiday accommodation nearby.

They were checked over by ambulance crew and all found to be well.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription at https://www.scotsman.com/subscriptions.