Photo of five people posing with a sheep

Fiona with her rescuers

The Sheep Game (Fiona); Shutterstock.com (wool)

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. With nowhere to go, Fiona lived all alone at the bottom of a cliff in Brora, Scotland. 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, and a petition for her rescue got 50,000 signatures. But the Coast Guard and other organizations said saving the sheep was too risky. Despite the danger, five local farmers decided to give it a try.

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

Still, the farmers managed to wrap Fiona in a large tarp attached to a rope, which was connected to an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) at the top of the cliff. As the ATV slowly pulled Fiona up the rocky slope, three of the farmers stayed by her side to make sure she didn’t get injured. Finally, Fiona safely arrived at the top.

Today, she lives on a farm in Dumfries, Scotland, along with other sheep and farm animals.

“Britain’s loneliest sheep is lonely no more!” says Cammy Wilson, who organized the rescue. 

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