People and properties have been evacuated as a wildfire has spread over a large area of forest in Galloway, in the south west of Scotland.

Emergency services were initially called to Glen Trool at about 23:50 on Friday, with police urging people to avoid the area.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) said two crews remained on the scene on Sunday morning, with helicopters continuing to water bomb the area.

Rising temperatures across the UK have led to wildfire warnings being put in place for several parts of the country.

Firefighters are also tackling another wild blaze in the west Highlands near Ullapool.

Police have closed a stretch of the A835 between the Achiltibuie junction and the junction at Badagyle.

A spokesperson for the SFRS said the fire in Galloway had now moved on to the nearby Bennan and Lamachan Hills.

Police previously warned of a risk the flames could spread to the Loch Doon area of East Ayrshire after a change in wind direction.

People living in the area, including near Loch Doon, have been asked to keep windows and doors closed.

A helicopter was dispatched to assess damage to the area from above on Sunday morning.

Stewart Gibson, team leader at Galloway Mountain Rescue, said at one point fire crews had four helicopters dropping water on the flames from above, with the fire front “two to three miles wide” at one stage.

He said five groups of walkers were located on the hills on Friday night, but were safely moved away from the area.

Team members were acting as spotters for the police overnight on Sunday, but were stood down at about 04:00.

He urged anyone heading to the hills over the next week to take care and avoid lighting camp fires or naked flames.

Mr Gibson told BBC Radio’s The Sunday Show: “It’s an exceptionally dry period of weather we have been having and I know for the next week it is going to be very dry as well.

“So anyone out with a camping stove, anything can park the fire, so we would urge anyone out to take care.

“We would advise people not to light camp fires and use naked flames.”

Police urged people to stay away from the site and urged and anyone camping nearby to leave. Areas affected include Merrick Hill, Ben Yellary and Loch Dee.

Another wildfire had been reported around the same the area on Thursday and covered some 1.5 miles (2.4km).

Scotland has seen a number of fires over the last few weeks as the weather gets warmer and drier.

The fire service issued an “extreme” warning for wildfires and the public has been urged to avoid lighting any fires outdoors until next week.

It warned that there was typically a large volume of “dead, bone-dry vegetation across large areas of countryside” at this time of year which acts as a fuel for fire.

The SFRS said hills are particularly prone to wildfires because the fire can spread far quicker uphill than on flatter ground.

BBC Scotland weather presenter, Christopher Blanchett, said the south of Scotland had only recorded about 30%-50% of its expected rainfall for March.

However, some areas close to the location of the fire at Glen Trool were drier still, with Scottish Environment Protection Agency rain gauge data showing rainfall at just 20% of expected levels.

He said: “This part of the Galloway forest hasn’t recorded any rainfall for more than a week, with the last wet weather here on 29 March.

“Overall, it’s been a dry start to April in Scotland and this followed a very dry March. There’s no rain forecast for the region for around another week too.

“In addition to the dry conditions, Friday and Saturday have been quite windy across the south west. On Friday night, the east-north-easterly winds were gusting close to gale force on the Solway coast.

He added: “All of these factors combined can help fuel wildfires and allow them to spread”.

Meanwhile an amber alert for wildfires is in place for parts of England, southern Scotland and Northern Ireland until Monday.

A huge gorse fire spanning about two miles (3.2km) in the Mourne Mountains in County Down is being tackled by the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service.

Police believe that fire may have been started deliberately.

The UK saw its warmest day of the year so far on Friday as temperatures reached 23C (73F) in the south of England.

Otterbourne and Gosport in Hampshire saw the highest temperatures and were warmer than Ibiza, Rhodes and Cyprus.

Cardiff was expected to see the mercury rise to 21C, while Scotland and Northern Ireland were forecast to be cooler, with around 10C in Edinburgh and 15C in Belfast predicted.

Temperatures are forecast to fall this weekend as cooler air moves down from the north. England’s south coast will be warmest on Saturday with an expected high of 21C, while Sunday will peak nearer 17C.

Before Friday, the highest temperature recorded so far this year was 21.3C in Northolt, west London, and Chertsey, Surrey, on 20 March.

Last month was the sunniest March in England since records began in 1910, according to the Met Office. It was also very dry, with the UK’s rainfall total just 43% of the usual amount.

Whereas, the highest April temperature ever recorded in the UK was 29.4C on 16 April 1949.

Friday will be warm across most of the country. Temperatures will be lower near North Sea coasts, where the wind is blowing from the sea and temperatures are around 13C.

Wild temperature swings are not unusual at this time of year.

Parts of southern England already hit highs of 20.7C on Thursday and 20.1C in the Scottish Highlands.

Scotland had its warmest day of the year on Thursday but temperatures both there and in Northern Ireland will be a little lower on Friday.

Temperatures are forecast to fall at the weekend as cooler air moves down from the north.

The south coast of England will be warmest on Saturday, reaching 21C, while the highest temperature in the UK on Sunday will be nearer 17C – still well above the seasonal norm.

Northern Ireland will be cooler this weekend but is set to turn warmer again next week with temperatures of up to 18C expected.

Heading into next week, the risk of overnight frost will return for the beginning of the week but it is expected to warm up again, with temperatures forecast to be back up to 21C in Scotland.

Throughout this time it is still looking dry, and those conditions are ideal for wildfires starting and spreading.

Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) said on Wednesday that there was a “very high to extreme risk” of fires spreading while Cumbria Fire and Rescue service urged the public to act responsibly to cut the risk of wildfires.

The fire service has tackled blazes this week near Bonhill in West Dunbartonshire and in the Kilpatrick Hills near Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire.

Elsewhere, more than 126 acres (51 hectares) were left charred after a fire at Upton Heath in Poole shortly before midnight on Wednesday, and a second fire broke out at nearby Canford Heath on Thursday morning.

Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service said the fires were both “down to human intervention”.

In England there were 185.8 hours of sunshine in March, according to the Met Office, the country recorded its sixth driest March and Wales its fourth driest since records began in 1836.

The story goes that 60 years ago, Tunnock’s teacakes were banned from RAF flights after a cockpit marshmallow explosion.

The chocolate-covered treats were apparently all the rage, eaten by nuclear bomber crewmen on training sorties at the height of the Cold War.

But in the summer of 1965, a captain and student pilot forgot they had placed unwrapped teacakes above their instrument panels.

When the captain pulled an emergency depressurising switch the iconic Scottish treat erupted – leaving a sticky mess over the airmen, the instruments and cockpit canopy.

Now the RAF Centre of Aerospace Medicine has now given them the all-clear to fly again, after tests in an altitude chamber found the teacakes did not explode.

The experiments were covered by the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) at the centre based at RAF Henlow in Bedfordshire.

First the teacakes were put into an altitude chamber – normally used in the training of new fast jet pilots – and were lifted to 8,000ft, climbing at 4,000ft per minute,

They were then rapidly decompressed to 25,000ft in three seconds to see if they would blow up.

As air pressure in the chamber decreased, the air inside the teacakes expanded until the chocolate cracked and the mallow filling puffed out.

BFBS reporter Hannah King, who witnessed the tests, said while the mallow escaped from the chocolate casing, they “did not appear to explode and cause a risk to in-flight safety”.

It was also discovered that when they were frozen before being placed in the chamber, their hardened shells were more resilient to cracking at altitude.

Pilots have been allowed to take them back in the cockpit but have been offered some advice by Dr Oliver Bird, an instructor at the RAF Centre of Aerospace Medicine, who carried out the tests.

“The best advice is that the snacks are kept frozen and in their foil wrappings until pilots are ready to consume them,” he said.

Tunnock’s, based in Uddingston, near Glasgow, has been approached for comment.