Lottie the Collie (right) came to the rescue of Gracie the Labrador (left) (Picture: Susan Jones/SWNS)

A Labrador which had been lost for 24 hours was eventually found trapped down a 15ft hole – by a four-legged friend.

Eight-year-old Gracie was enjoying a walk on high marshland near Kinder Scout in the Peak District when her owner Guy Beggs lost sight of her.

Snowy weather conditions made it near impossible to scan their surroundings properly.

Unbeknown to Guy, 41, Gracie had plunged down a 4.5 metre deep pothole just yards away from the track they had been walking along on Monday.

He spent hours looking for the black Labrador even returning to his campsite to grab a torch before searching into the night.

In desperation, he put out an appeal on social media – which sparked a full-scale rescue mission involving people from as far as Manchester, Bolton and Leeds.

Kind-hearted volunteers braved sub-zero temperatures to join the search for Gracie, which continued into the next day.

They included Susan Jones, 50, of Derby, who joined the hunt with her Border Collie cross Lottie and her friend Lynn Baker, 59, as they were staying on the same campsite.

The pothole (circled) where Gracie had plummeted down (Picture: Susan Jones/SWNS)

While the group stopped for a drinks break, four-year-old Lottie began sniffing in shrubbery near the path.

She miraculously found the hole where Gracie had fallen in and brought it to the attention of rescuers.

Guy, along with another volunteer, abseiled down using a makeshift rope made out of dog leads to bring her back to safety after more than 23 hours.

The dad-of-one, from Warrington in Cheshire, said: ‘When we found her, I got so emotional I broke down in tears, I was just so relieved.

‘My biggest worry is that there was a cliff edge down the path, and I was scared she’d skidded off the rock as the snow turns to ice.

‘We spent a good hour looking around, before my friend followed the tracks back to see if she’d gone down.

‘I posted an appeal on a Facebook hiking group and within an hour there was 10,000 shares.

‘There’s a local canine search group called K9 Search and Rescue and they came down with a thermal heating drone.

A winch system was used to rescue the terrified Gracie (Picture: Susan Jones/SWNS)

‘We even had an ex-navy guy come, and we went out and covered 12 miles in and around the bog land.’

Gracie was treated to biscuits, ham and water after she was rescued and soon calmed down.

Guy says he plans to keep in touch with Susan, Lynn and the clever Lottie.

He added that he ‘can’t thank them enough’.

Lottie the superdog (Picture: Susan Jones/SWNS)

Susan, who works as a teacher, said she was ‘amazed’ by her hero dog’s antics after she sniffed out the missing pooch.

She added: ‘We were camping next to Guy and we had heard about a missing dog and it became apparent it had been missing a while.

‘We got up in the morning with Lottie to see if we could help.

‘The weather was horrific so we sheltered by a rock for a drink and as we did Lottie disappeared over by a bush.

Gracie, left, and Lottie, right, have become firm friends (Picture: Susan Jones/SWNS)

‘She stuck her head in this bush and I called her and she wouldn’t come back.

‘I pulled her back and there was a very deep hole. I lay on the ground and there was two little eyes looking up at me.’

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Lottie the Collie came to the rescue of Gracie the Labrador.