A hiker is recovering in hospital after sustaining an injury while walking a popular trail in East Clare this afternoon.
Emergency services were alerted at around 2.40pm to the accident on the walking trail at Moylussa, the county’s highest point.
The National Ambulance Service and the Killaloe unit of the Irish Coast Guard were tasked to the incident.
Coast Guard volunteers from Killaloe responded with 4x4s and an all-terrain vehicle (ATV). Within minutes of receiving the call, Coast Guard ATV team members were making their way along the track from Ballycuggaran to Moylussa.
Conditions on the access road and trail were reported to be challenging in parts after temperatures had dropped overnight leaving underfoot conditions in a poor state.
Once the vehicles could go no further the crew, carrying all their emergency equipment, had to make the final stretch on foot to reach the casualty.
The woman, understood to be in her 40s, was cared for by other walkers who kept her warm and comfortable until help arrived.
On reaching the scene, Coast Guard members carried out an initial assessment and comforted the casualty until ambulance paramedics reached the scene.
The woman was treated for a lower leg injury by paramedics before a Coast Guard team recovered the casualty by stretcher down the walking track to the waiting ambulance.
She was then transported to University Hospital Limerick for treatment.