Photo of five people posing with a sheep with a heavy coat

Fiona with her rescuers

Shutterstock.com (sheep wool); The Sheep Game (rescuers, Fiona)

The Great Sheep Rescue

Jim McMahon/Mapman® 

Fiona the sheep was stranded. On one side of her was the sea. On the other was a rocky slope that was too steep to climb. There was nowhere for Fiona to go. So she lived all alone at the bottom of a cliff on the eastern coast of Scotland. But that changed last November, when a group of farmers came to her rescue.

Fiona was first spotted by a kayaker in 2021. Two years later, the same kayaker was shocked to see that Fiona was still in the area. 

The story of “Britain’s loneliest sheep” quickly spread online. Thousands of people called for Fiona’s rescue. But the Coast Guard and other groups said saving the sheep would be too risky. Despite the danger, five local farmers decided to give it a try.

Three of the farmers used ropes to carefully trek down to the base of the cliff. They found Fiona inside a cave. The rescue team was surprised by how heavy she was—about 200 pounds!

The Sheep Game

Fiona’s rescuers trimmed off about 19 pounds of the sheep’s matted wool.

The farmers wrapped Fiona in a large tarp attached to a rope. It was connected to an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) at the top of the cliff. As the ATV slowly backed up, it pulled Fiona up the slope. The men stayed with her to make sure she didn’t get injured. Finally, Fiona safely arrived at the top.

Today, she lives on a farm in Dumfries, Scotland, with other sheep to keep her company.

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