Beinn Uidhe. Photo: Ivor MacKenzie CC-BY-SA-2.0

A party of girls undertaking their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award was found safe in the far North-West of Scotland after a major search involving two rescue teams.

The six expeditioners were reported missing north of Beinn Uidhe in Assynt at 8.30pm on Friday.

Four members of the Dundonnell Mountain Rescue Team mounted an initial search, along with an animal from the Search and Rescue Dogs Association.

Team leader Mick Holmes said: “After tracking the path until it disappeared, about 1.15am, the four members and a Sarda search dog hunkered down in bothy units until 2.30am when they were joined by another nine members of Dundonnell MRT.

“A line search was initiated on good guesswork from the Assynt MRT team leader, who we were helping out, and the girls were located safe and well around 3.45.

“The girls and the team then had to walk a further four miles to get picked up by Reay estate boats and back out to Kylesku.”

The rescue was wound up about 10.30am on Saturday. Mr Holmes estimates the rescue took about 195 man-hours from the Dundonnell team alone.

The search centred on the remote area north of the 740m (2,428ft) Beinn Uidhe towards Glen Coul.