A young rock climber is recovering in hospital following a late night rescue operation in Co Clare.
The 19-year-old college student was bouldering with friends at Ard Na Glasha about 3km north of Doolin. Bouldering is a form of rock climbing where participants don’t use safety equipment.
The young woman, believed to be from Cork, had been climbing with friends when she fell about 3m (9ft) to the ground. The accident happened at around 9.30pm.
An ambulance responded to the incident from Ennis while the Doolin unit of the Irish Coast Guard was also requested to assist.
Coast Guard volunteers located the injured woman close to the shoreline and it was soon established she had suffered a fractured ankle. She was treated at the scene by a doctor and Coast Guard first responders until the ambulance arrived.
National Ambulance Service paramedics assessed the woman but it was considered too dangerous to carry a stretcher in the dark across the rocky landscape to an ambulance.
Instead, the Shannon based Irish Coast Guard helicopter was requested to assist with recovering the casualty from the location.
Rescue 115 reached the scene shortly before midnight and airlifted the injured woman to their base at Shannon Airport from where she was transported to University Hospital Limerick by road for treatment.
A Coast Guard spokesman confirmed that the operation took about two hours to complete and that access to the location was very difficult.