Welcome to Bolton Mountain Rescue Team
Bolton Mountain Rescue Team is a voluntary search and rescue charity and a member of Mountain Rescue England and Wales that represents 49 teams. Bolton MRT is made up entirely of volunteers who are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
We cover an area of over 800 square kilometres extending from Darwen in the West Pennine Moors to the north to beyond Manchester Airport in the south, and from Wigan to the west to the centre of Manchester in the east.
Bolton Mountain Rescue Team
The chances are you will never need our services. However, since 1968, a great many have. Our callouts are diverse. For example, we help walkers, runners, bikers, climbers and even dogs that have found themselves in a precarious position. We also search for members of the public who are missing outside of urban areas, particularly those classed as vulnerable by the police.
It costs around £50,000 per year to run the team. Securing this amount of money each year is a constant challenge. We rely on the generosity of the public and other organisations who provide us with donations. Visit the donations page to learn more about how you can help raise money for the team.
Latest News
This week is Volunteers’ Week.
Everyone on Bolton Mountain Rescue Team, like all Mountain Rescue Teams in England & Wales, is a volunteer. This means that we can only keep going through public donations and good-will gestures.
Running and maintaining our vehicles is one of our major costs. A fantastic gesture of good-will came from Whitecroft Garage in Bolton earlier this year. In January, they very kindly MOT’d one of our Land Rovers - Bolton Mobile 2 (BM2) - for free. During the MOT, it was found that the vehicle required some essential remedial work. Following that work, Whitecroft Garage again MOT’d BM2 totally free of charge.
Thank you to all at Whitecroft Garage for helping keep us on the road!
This week is Volunteers’ Week and it’s a great opportunity to share with you just how busy Bolton Mountain Rescue Team has been this year. The map illustrates how far afield we have received callouts so far this year. We travelled as far west as Parbold to assist Bowland Pennine MRT, south to Stockport to rescue people impacted by the New Year floods, east to Haslingden for a quarry rescue and to the north of Bolton to help search for a missing person. A total of 23 callouts, with the longest being 67 hours!
Every team member is on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It costs over £60,000 to operate as a team, with much of this funding provided by donations from individuals and businesses across the area.
Thank you to everyone for your support, which enables us to continue saving lives.
Map data ©️2025 Google
On Call 24 Hours
Search & Rescue
Event Safety Cover
In case of an emergency, DIAL 999, ask for ‘Police’ then ‘Mountain Rescue’
Give all your prepared details of the incident and ‘STAY WHERE YOU ARE’ until contacted by the rescue team.
If you have to make a further 999 call, follow this procedure in full again.