A HILLWALKER who was left hanging on to his friend's shepherd's crook after a path gave way beneath them has been saved in a dramatic RAF rescue mission.

The pair, both believed to be in their 60s, lost their footing when the path on Hart Fell, near Moffat in Dumfriesshire, disintegrated as they walked along it, stranding them just below a ridge at the top of a gully.

One of the walkers fell down on to rocky ground, but managed to grab his friend's walking aid, which both men then held for 45 minutes before a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter from Prestwick arrived.

Dramatic pictures from the scene show one of the men lying down holding one end of the crook, while the other hangs on below, facing a steep drop.

In a complex rescue mission hampered by the layout of the hills and difficult visibility, the RAF crew were forced to reverse the helicopter into position "as close as they dared" to reach the pair, who have not been named.

Lieutenant Commander Jon Green, pilot and duty aircraft commander, said: "We had to get as near to them as we could, so that we could safely winch our aircrewman down.

"But, because we knew that they were not only on unstable ground, but that one of them was holding the other by his crook, we had to keep the hover as high as possible to avoid dislodging either the people or the scree with the downwash from the helicopter.

"With the low cloud base, however, this was very difficult.

"There was no question of our aircrewman chief petty officer Shaun Knights detaching from the winch - the conditions underfoot were just too unpredictable.

"So we had to put ourselves into a steady hover about 100 feet directly above them both.

"[The crewman] went down on the wire and managed to quickly secure a strop around the lower of the two men, before recovering him to the aircraft.

"The same procedure was repeated for his walking partner."

Both walkers, from Edinburgh, who were described as "experience and well equipped", managed to escape uninjured.

However, an RAF spokeswoman said they were "very shaken by their dramatic experience".

They were taken to a nearby farm where officers from Police Scotland, who received the initial call for help at 11.05am, were waiting for them.

A Police Scotland spokesman said: "The walkers, who were both experienced, became stranded after coming across an area of ground with a lot of scree which they deemed to be dangerous.

"After getting into difficulty, they were unable to move and were forced to hang on using a walking stick.

"We immediately activated the search and rescue operation and both walkers came off uninjured, albeit a bit shaken up, and were dropped off at their car."

Situated six miles north-east of Moffat, Hart Fell is the highest hill in Dumfriesshire at 2,651ft (808m).