A scene from a classic 60s TV series or just a man and buoy at Dunnet beach?
A chance snap of a Caithness Beach Cleans (CBC) volunteer reminded some locals of a classic British television series and had others scratching their heads over the image.
Audrey Gunn from Weydale was walking her best friend's dog on Dunnet beach last Friday when she saw the odd sight of a man struggling with a large balloon-like object.
On a Facebook post, Audrey wrote: "I don't know who this gentleman was on Dunnet Beach today but all credit to him for rolling this large item along the beach towards the bin area to avoid it being washed out to sea and possibly causing an accident with a sea vessel. Well done mister."
The combination of man, beach and balloon had some, perhaps slightly older, social media users think of The Prisoner TV series from the 1960s in which a secret agent played by Patrick McGoohan is chased on a beach by a malevolent balloon called Rover.
The "balloon" was actually a mooring buoy, according to the mysterious figure in the picture who turned out to be CBC volunteer George Robertson and who took it upon himself to remove the debris from Dunnet beach.
George said he was alerted to the issue by a friend's picture showing his dog sniffing the buoy. "I saw the picture and had a fair idea what it was and knew I could probably roll it to where the council could pick it up, so that’s what I did," he said.
"I didn’t want it to float back out to sea were it could possibly have been smashed up on rocks and turned into lots of smaller pieces."
Audrey who posted the original picture joked that it was just "a man and his buoy" on the beach.
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