'Loneliest sheep' fronts mental health campaign

A ewe dubbed "Britain's loneliest sheep" before she was rescued from a remote cave has featured in a festive mental health awareness campaign.

Now named Fiona, she has been pictured with "Are ewe OK?" and "#KeepTalking" placards by a charity which offers support to Scottish farmers.

She attracted worldwide media attention after she was pictured stranded alone on a rugged shoreline in the Highlands.

After her rescue last month she was rehomed at a farm park near Dumfries.

Fiona's overgrown fleece was shorn and auctioned for charity, helping to raise, along with donations, about £11,000 for the Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RSABI) and the Scottish SPCA.

The three-year-old ewe has now been enlisted for RSABI's Christmas #KeepTalking campaign to combat loneliness and the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs' mental health message Are Ewe OK?.

Carol McLaren, chief executive of RSABI, said: "We know there can be a lot of loneliness in the farming community, particularly at this time of year.

"The #KeepTalking campaign highlights how important it is for people to keep in touch and keep an eye out for anyone who could be feeling low or lonely. We know that just a little kindness can make a massive difference for someone who is struggling."

The sheep caught the imagination of the world's media after kayaker Jill Turner photographed her at the foot of cliffs on the Moray Firth - and realised it was the same sheep she had spotted on an earlier trip.

The rocky shoreline and dangerous terrain made a rescue difficult but she was eventually hauled to the top of the cliffs by team of farmers led by Cammy Day, who is a regular on BBC's Scotland Landward programme.

She is now living at Dalscone Farm, a farm park and visitor attraction near Dumfries.

Her rehoming was not without controversy - a group of animal rights activists who had been planning their own rescue claimed she could become distressed and exploited as a "spectacle" at a "petting zoo".

However, Dalscone Farm said she would have five months to settle in while the farm park was closed for winter, and she would be given her own pen while she was slowly introduced to other animals.

Fiona's rescuers said she had a very calm temperament and was in good health, albeit somewhat overweight after years of unfettered access to grazing.

They named her Fiona after the partner of Shrek, the animated comedy character, because another renegade sheep with an overgrown fleece that was eventually rescued in New Zealand some years ago was named Shrek.

He went on to achieve similar celebrity status, becoming the subject of children's books, meeting the country's prime minister and being immortalised with a bronze statue after his death in 2011 at the ripe old age of 16.