What lies within mystery Castletown beach box?
A watertight plastic box found on Castletown beach appears to be part of a global treasure hunt thinks its finder.
Dorcas Sinclair from Dunnet came across the box when doing her usual beach cleaning activities to reduce plastic pollution and after opening it she knew exactly what she had found – a geocache.
Geocaching is a global treasure hunting activity in which participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called geocaches or "caches", at specific locations marked by coordinates.
A typical geocache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook and sometimes a pen or pencil. The geocacher signs the log with their established code name and dates it, in order to prove that they found the cache. After signing the log, the cache must be placed back exactly where the person found it. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers or ammunition boxes can also contain items for trading, such as toys or trinkets, usually of more sentimental worth than financial.
"We found the cache on Castletown beach on 15th June," said Dorcas who runs the group Caithness Beach Cleans. "We suspect it may be one of the Haggis Highway series – maybe Pathway to T, however that cache is no longer listed and with a Wick Rocks stone in, we just do not know."
The Haggis Highway came about in 2012 as a dare to place 500+ caches in the north of Scotland – as caches were a bit sparse then. The first batch were placed from June to October going live to coincide with a series of events from Braemar to Wick in the October.
Dorcas added: "It may be that it should be at Castletown and maybe a dog has found it and run off with it, we just don't know. With the Wick Rocks stone in it, I am guessing that someone local has done it and they may be able to tell us which one it is. There are a lot of Haggis Highway caches."
More information on geocaching can be found at www.geocaching.com/play
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