WATCH: Mammoth rope of almost 600lb removed from Dunnet beach thanks to Caithness Beach Cleans team – see how they haul out the hawser
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Members of a local beach cleaning team had their hands full this week when they hauled out a massive mooring rope from a ship that was laid up on Dunnet beach.
A short video published on YouTube shows members of Caithness Beach Cleans (CBC) removing the rope with the use of a sledge attached to a quad bike.
"Autumn’s first bite at the start of this week made itself felt by dumping a huge lump of hawser on Dunnet Beach," said Dorcas Sinclair who started the beach cleaning group with her husband Allan.
Dorcas added that it was fortunate that one of the CBC volunteers was there to deal with this fallout from stormy seas.
CBC member Mike Mackay had already picked up over 100lbs of plastic off of Dunnet after the stormy Monday and Tuesday when he found the hawser – rope used in mooring or towing a ship. It was no mean feat dragging it up out of the tide to be dealt with later, but using "common sense and much hard work" he managed the task, added Dorcas.
"Then another group member, Jamie Bremner, a local fisherman, who was out checking to make sure none of his creels had landed on the beach, found where Mike had left the hawser. Jamie was on his quad and dragged the rope to the Pavilion and left it just below the picnic benches."
On Thursday, Allan and Dorcas arrived with the group quad bike ready to collect other waste that they had left on the beach the day before. Once they realised that the hawser was not at the bin, a plan was hatched to move it up there as the rope needed to be weighed for the statistics too.
"Mike Mackay came back to help and [together with] Allan the smallest bit of rope was weighed, the rest was measured and then moved to the bins and the council was notified that it was there for special uplift."
The total weight of the hawser was 585.84lbs and the total weight of plastic that was removed from Dunnet that day was 773.61 lbs. "Autumn's first bite indeed," said Dorcas
