Amazing 'journey' of message in a bottle

Published 6 May 2010 11:50

From Helensburgh to Aberdeenshire

AN eight-year-old Helensburgh boy playing at the pier with his big sister joined her in throwing a bottle into the water with a message in it. That was August, 14, 2002.

Now, in May 2010, Burgh teenager George Mackinlay of Heron Lodge in Charlotte Street has heard from an Aberdeenshire environmental group who have found his bottle buried in the mud about half a mile up the River Ythan in Aberdeenshire.

It was found when one of the Ythan Project volunteers, local farmer and waste contractor Alistair Sinclair stood on it.

Alistair, chairman of the volunteer group, said: "We were doing our annual spring clean and I stood on the bottle by accident. It was embedded in the grass above the high tide mark and was about half a mile up river past the bridge at Newburgh.

"It is amazing that it got there at all. It must have floated down the Clyde, got caught in the Gulf Stream and swept north to the Pentland Firth before being brought all the way back down to Aberdeenshire and up the Ythan. I really don't know how it got buried in the grass. There must have ben an exceptionally high tide at some time or other."

George, now a teenager and a pupil at Hermitage Academy, said: "I don't really remember much about it.

"My sister Hannah and I both put bottles with messages in them into the water but after that I really forgot about it until I got a letter from Mr Sinclair telling me he had found it.

"I am really surprised that it has been found and I will write back to Mr Sinclair."

The Ythan Project was a four year European funded project which aimed to involve local people in protecting, restoring and enhancing the river Ythan.

The project ran from August 2001 until February 2005 and when it ended the volunteers decided they wanted to continue with their work and since then have been involved in cleaning the riverbank and estuary area, building mink rafts, squirrel bridges and bird boxes as well as water testing in the river and its tributaries.

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This article appeared in Helensburgh Advertiser 06 May 10

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