THEY encounter such hazards as falling sheep as they scale inaccessible peaks looking for rare examples of plant species such as bog asphodel.

But while it may seem like a plot from a thriller, it is all in a day’s work for Scotland’s abseiling botanists who seek out the country’s rarest alpine plants.

As climate change is causing alpine plants to grow at higher altitudes, Dan Watson and Paul Thomson need to take extreme action to make sure they keep their botanical knowledge up to scratch.

They are part of the National Trust for Scotland’s intrepid countryside experts and have just received specialist training in rope access, so they can reach never-before accessed areas and get a better understanding of the plant life that’s found there.

Between them they scour some of the Trust’s most mountainous terrain at Ben Lawers, Glencoe and Mar Lodge Estate and have recently undergone rope training and abseiling in a bid to access more inaccessible areas.

Mr Thomson said: “The main target for this work is for botanical surveys of inaccessible areas. For example, we are planning to access crags and gullies in Coire nam Beitheach at Glencoe National Nature Reserve. I monitor a number of rare plants there, but I am certain that there is much to be discovered in even more remote locations.

“There are many other locations at both of these properties that we will look at in coming years, but requests are also starting to come in from elsewhere too.”

The move is seen as necessary as NTS research shows Scotland’s rare mountain plants are disappearing at an “alarming rate”.

Monitoring has revealed many fragile alpine species are vanishing from areas they used to inhabit and retreating to higher altitudes in response to global warming.

Conservationists say milder, wetter winters, drier springs and a decrease in lying snow are having an impact on plants growing on peaks. Studies at some of the country’s famous beauty spots have revealed major declines.

In some cases, plants have vanished from lower level locations where they had previously thrived. The tiny but fragile Arctic plants, such as Iceland purslane, snow pearlwort and Highland saxifrage, are found only in a handful of locations in the Highlands and islands, clustered in north-facing gullies, coires and crevices, frequently protected by the last pockets of late-lying winter snow.

The move into extreme monitoring comes after a large group of botanists, geologists and mountaineers spent time on ropes surveying unexplored areas of the exposed and often sheer north face of Ben Nevis in a search for similar species.

The survey on the 1,346m mountain led to the discovery of Alpine saxifrage in new locations. The plant had not been detected on Ben Nevis until a survey in 2014.

They also found new populations of Highland saxifrage, as well as the white-flowered Arctic mouse-ear, a plant native to Greenland, Iceland and Norway, and starwort mouse-ear, plus a mystery grass.

But a survey on the Burg peninsula of Mull had found the tiny annual plant was being severely hit by warmer springs, which had also led to increased growth by other plants competing for space.

On Bidean nam Bian next to Glencoe in Argyll, the latest field surveys also found a 50 per cent decline in Highland saxifrage at lower altitudes compared to the numbers detected in 1995.

Mr Watson added: “Our monitoring shows climate change is affecting Scotland’s mountains at an alarming rate. When you see mountain plants either retreating up the hill or disappearing from their niches, it’s clear evidence that things are changing. The evidence is unequivocal to me that the climate is changing in the mountains.”