Upper Wharfedale FRA members with the rescued sheep on Hawkswick Clowder. Photo: UWFRA

A team of rescuers was called to deal with a trapped casualty, described as ‘smelly’.

Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association was alerted on Saturday to the plight of a sheep that was trapped in a narrow cleft on a Yorkshire Dales hillside.

A walker spotted the animal trapped in a rift on Hawkswick Clowder, between Bordley and Littondale. Police contacted the rescue team and five of its volunteers went to the site.

A team spokesperson said: “The team was able to drive up to the location in a Land Rover and located the sheep down a hole in a line of old mine workings.

“The sheep was recovered and was reported as unharmed but smelly. What the sheep thought about the caver who went down the hole to rescue it is unknown.”

The Grassington-based rescuers deal with incidents both on the fells of the eastern Dales and in the area’s numerous limestone cave systems.