100-year-old find at St Cyrus beach clean

Volunteers at a north-east beach clean reacted with astonishment after finding an item which had washed up about a century after being thrown out.

Among the twelve bags of rubbish and recycling collected at the St Cyrus nature reserve on Saturday was a tin can of Min cream from the 1920s.

Min cream was a car and household polish which was popular in the UK in the first half of the 20th century.

Reserve manager Therese Alampo said: “How a tin can like this survived over 90 years is incredible.

“We did find a French legionnaire’s rifle several years ago in the cave, but this is the oldest thing we’ve ever found on a beach clean.

“It’s now in the office – still with Min cream in it!”

She described her reaction upon the find as “amazement.”

The nature reserve organises regular beach cleans, with over 80 taking part at the weekend.

She added: “It was great that the turnout was so big and also that we managed to recycle so much of it.”