The pair were airlifted to hospital by RAF Sea King

The parents of one of the two walkers rescued after spending the night on a Scottish mountain have thanked the teams who came to their aid and expressed regret for the expense and trouble the rescuers were put to.

The 24-year-old man and his girlfriend, 28, were found after a 13-hour search in the Loch Brandy area of Glen Clova by four mountain rescue teams.

The man had called 999 about 10pm on Wednesday after getting lost while hillwalking.

Members of the Tayside Police and Grampian Police Mountain Rescue Teams were joined by volunteers from the Braemar and Tayside Mountain Rescue Teams in the operation, which also included specialist search and rescue dogs.

The couple, both students, were found by the Tayside Police team about 11am the following morning and airlifted to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee by a Sea King helicopter from RAF Leuchars, uninjured by suffering from the cold and wet. They were given a medical check before being discharged.

Today, the woman’s parents issued a statement thanking the emergency teams involved.

They said: “We are extremely grateful for the assistance and the consideration shown by members of Tayside Police and the other agencies involved, in keeping us informed of the situation on the ground during the whole time that the operation was in progress.

“What started as a leisure-time outing into the Angus Glen turned into their nightmare experience which saw them stranded for some 20 hours in the Loch Brandy area, and subsequently required the deployment of so many of the civilian and service search and rescue units.

“They both now appreciate that perhaps their ambitions did exceed their experience and that the weather they found on the hills was indeed a total change from that they had experienced in the journey through the glen itself.

“They were – in their minds – wearing clothing appropriate to the conditions that they had expected to find; however they now realise that this was not the case. They both now fully appreciate the need to be equipped to survive the conditions that they found themselves in and indeed be better prepared in general before undertaking similar activities in the future.

“They both extend their most sincere regret for the trouble and expense that the authorities and the volunteer organisations have been put to.

“Along with all the family, both of them wish to express their most sincere thanks for the work of all the partner agencies involved in their rescue, and indeed for the outstanding devotion that all members of the various teams show providing the most valuable service to the public at large.”