The beach clean was sponsored by Stronsay Community Council and this account was first published in The Stronsay Limpet and republished here with their kind permission.
A group of enthusiastic volunteers met on Saturday 18th April to pick up and bag all of the man-made rubbish littering some of our beaches. On what was quite a windy but dry day a few of the volunteers tackled the mile-long stretch of the Rothiesholm Sands, picking up all the bottles, net, bits of rope, plastic and other non-biodegradable rubbish washed up there, leaving it a beach to be proud of once again!
Rowan Gray, his mum Alice Gray and Grandad Mike Holland
At the same time another team tackled the shores around Grice Ness, again clearing it of all kinds of smaller rubbish which had been washed ashore, although having to leave some larger fishing related items for another day. The beach at the Mill Bay had been cleaned the previous day and, between those three beaches, an amazing 54 bags of rubbish were picked up, along with numerous plastic items too big to bag, over more than 3 miles of Stronsay’s beach and shoreline.
Many thanks to our team of volunteer picker-uppers, to Gaynor with her quadbike and trailer, to Robin and Jennifer for taking the bags of litter and larger plastic items in to the Recycling Centre on the Orkney Mainland and finally to Stronsay Community Council for their much appreciated sponsorship, which has given our Heritage Society funds a big boost.
