The beaming face of a young Alex Salmond is the last thing a north-east family expected to see when they strayed off the beaten path and deep into an Aberdeen forest.
But when Sinead Carlin, her fiance Christopher King and their young twins unearthed a treasure trove of tattered Press and Journal newspapers dating back more than 45 years at Tyrebagger, that was what they found.
Mr Salmond, then 15 years away from becoming First Minister, was pictured on the front of a 1992 edition of the P&J as he set out on the election trail looking to retain his Buchan seat.
Another sepia-tinted newspaper printed on Tuesday March 3, 1987, detailed Peterhead FC’s loss to Raith Rovers at Gayfield Park in Arbroath in a Scottish Cup tie.
Further down the page, there was an article about the Soviet Union’s offer to dismantle its medium-range nuclear weapons during a conference in Geneva.
There was also a note at the top of that copy of the P&J commemorating its 240th year.
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A Daily Record newspaper from August 13, 1987, was among the mysterious stash too.
Copies of other DC Thomson titles The Weekly News and The Sunday Post were also spotted, with one large batch of Press and Journals bundled up.
Ms Carlin said she often walked through the woods with her children and dog, Maya, but yesterday decided to wander off the designated “red path” for about 20 minutes.
It was then she came to a clearing with the newspapers scattered across the ground, alongside an old-fashioned typewriter and a number of abandoned bikes.
Impressed by the historic merit of the stash, she snapped a few photographs and shared them on a social media site designed to preserve images of the area’s past.
She added: “I’ll definitely be going back for a proper look.
“I love history so this was a fantastic find.”
It is thought the newspapers, most of which date from 1972 and have been well preserved, might have come from an abandoned house nearby.
