Llandudno’s RNLI lifeboat crew and a Coastguard cliff rescue team joined forces last night in a lengthy operation to bring to safety a dog trapped on a cliff ledge on the resort’s Great Orme headland.
The RNLI inshore lifeboat launched at 9pm to go to the scene at Pen Trwyn, where the team were preparing to rescue the animal. The white Staffordshire Bull Terrier had fallen some 40 feet onto an outcrop half-way down the cliff face.
Watched from the Marine Drive above by the dog’s owner, a coastguard was lowered to the distressed animal; although the dog was in a position difficult to reach, he managed to put it into a special purpose-designed bag before abseiling a further 40 feet down the cliff to where Llandudno’s inshore lifeboat was being held against the rock face by her crew. After taking both the coastguard and his charge onboard, the lifeboat powered back to Llandudno’s north shore where they were met by local coastguards.
Once back on the beach the dog appeared uninjured and none the worse for its experience. Llandudno’s Second Coxswain said later, “He was a lovely little dog, and it was fortunate the outcrop broke his fall; otherwise he would have dropped the whole 80 feet onto rocks at the foot of the cliffs”.
