Storms over the east coast have
resulted in several unusual relics from World War II washing up on a beach in
north east Scotland.
Staff at St Cyrus nature reserve said four large, barrel-shaped pieces of
lard have appeared on the shore. The fat is believed to have escaped from the wreck of a merchant vessel that
was bombed in WW II. The lard would have originally been stored in wooden barrels, which have long
since rotted away.
It is not the first time that WWII supplies have washed ashore at the beach near
Montrose. Angus McHardy, a local resident and retired fisherman,
said he remembers similar events in the in early 1940s. "I'd never seen anything like it," he said. "There was quite a lot washed up
at St Cyrus and beyond, not quite to Montrose. Some barrels were complete and others were just lumps.
"People collected it.
My grandma boiled it up to get the sand out. It was great because we couldn't
get fat during the war." He added: "After a storm in the late 60s or early 70s, the lard came up
on-shore again. The seagulls thought it was a bonanza." Therese Alampo, St Cyrus reserve manager, said: "The depth of the swell
during the storms we had over the holidays must have broke apart the shipwreck
some more and caused the lard to escape.
"It's given us some interesting sights recently on the reserve: I'm sure
there have been people wondering what on earth has washed up on the beach. The lard was covered in the largest barnacles I've ever seen. Animals,
including my dog, have certainly enjoyed the lard, and it still looks and smells
good enough to have a fry up with."
4 comments:
Makes you pwoud, vewy pwoud, that the first thing a Scot thinks of when coming across a large lump of sand-caked fat from the 40s is, "fry up!".
And, of course, just about 10 miles further south of Montrose there's a wee place we all have nothing to do with...
Heh!
The fry up thought really made me laugh!
When I read that I thought "Interesting. Followed by 'who the heck uses lard to fry things anymore?', followed by 'Actually, who'd even think of that?'"
I fry up definitely wouldn't have been my first thought!
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