No barrels of fun at Roy Geo
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A TEAM of beach-clean volunteers took on more than they bargained for when they went out for a recce trip around the Caithness coastline.
Dorcas Sinclair started the Caithness Beach Cleans Facebook group with her husband Allan in March when they saw that Dunnet beach was attracting "more and more plastic and dead birds".
"We always picked up and put plastic in the bins and kept on saying we should weigh it as there was so much, so eventually that is what we did," Dorcas said. "The group has picked up over four-and-a-half tons of plastic from local beaches."
The volunteers went out last Thursday to check what rubbish was lying around the cliffs and beach at Roy Geo on the east coast. Along with Dorcas and Allan were Christopher Solheim-Allen – who was visiting the couple from Norway – and Derek Bremner, who had originally pinpointed the site near Clyth.
Dorcas said: "Once Derek showed us the beach I took him back to Thrumster and returned to find Allan and Chris dragging barrels and ropes up the hill to the first gate. I went down and started picking up plastic bottles and polystyrene – there was a lot of both.
"We had not intended to clean the beach that day – it was more a recce, with the intention of coming back with more people. However, when we saw it we felt that we had to do something to stop the plastic going back into the sea."
Dorcas said it was "very hard going" traversing the steep hill from the geo and even after reaching the main gate there was another uphill struggle all the way to the car. The volunteers spent over five hours making countless trips up and down the cliff to gather the plastic.
"We left it at the farm and the council will hopefully have picked it up by now. If we do any organised cleans in the future they will come under the ranger service and a ranger will be in attendance," she added.
The group can be found on Facebook as Caithness Beach Cleans and invites people to "enjoy going for a walk" and pick up rubbish on the way back if possible.
