TWO walkers spent a perilous five hours trapped at the bottom of 800-foot sea cliffs near Minehead before they could be helped to safety on Friday night (September 29).

They were the first casualties to be rescued by Minehead’s new Atlantic 85 Penny J ll lifeboat, which had only been on service for a week.

The men set off from Minehead late on Friday afternoon with the intention of walking to Porlock along the beach.

But after a mile they discovered the incoming spring tide had trapped them in a small area of boulders at the base of the cliff.

Minehead’s D class boat was launched in response to their 999 call to Coastguards but because of sea conditions was unable to reach them and instead stood off until the tide peaked.

A Coastguard helicopter from South Wales was diverted to the scene but was too low on fuel to mount a rescue operation and although the Newquay Coastguard helicopter arrived soon afterwards the crew decided against trying to winch the men out.

Minehead RNLI local operations manager Dr John Higgie said they could hardly have been in a worse location.

Dr Higgie said: “They were stuck right underneath the cliff and with the sea where it was they could not even move away from it to give the helicopter more room to manoeuvre.

“It was decided to wait for the tide to go down and then pick them up from somewhere more accessible.”

Both the Minehead boats were relaunched at 10.30 pm, by which time the men had made their way along to Selworthy Sands, from where they were extracted.

Dr Higgie said the pair had done the right thing by taking a mobile phone with them.

He said: “We always say it is vital to carry some means of attracting attention, preferably a phone, when exploring this part of the coast.

“Had they not been able to make contact and raise the alarm about their situation they would have been stuck all night in an extremely precarious situation.”