A WALKER suffering from heat exhaustion on the hottest day of the year was saved by the Loch Lomond Rescue Boat on Thursday after getting into difficulties on the West Highland Way.

The boat's crew were paged just before 8pm and asked to help a walker suffering from an injured ankle north of Rowardennan.

After a short search, the crew found two men near Rowchoish - one suffering from an ankle injury, the other from dehydration and heat exhaustion.

The crew gave medical assistance to both casualties before taking them across the loch to an ambulance which was waiting at Tarbet.

The rescue boat was then alerted to a report of a boat with four people on board suffering mechanical problems south of Inchmurrin.

On arriving at the scene the crew attached a tow line to the stricken vessel and towed it back to its berth in Balloch.

The rescue boat crew were stood down on arrival back at their base in Luss.

Temperatures at the loch reached a peak of almost 25 degrees on Thursday afternoon, though even that was beaten on Friday, when a temperature of 25.7 degrees was recorded by the Met Office.