A young Aberdeenshire girl whose message in a bottle reached Scandinavia has been united with its finder.
Six-year-old Sienna Roy threw the bottle into the sea at Aberdour beach near Fraserburgh on June 12 last year.
In the letter, Sienna introduces herself and asks that anyone who finds her message get in touch.
A little over two months later, on August 18, Sienna’s bottle washed up 440 miles away at Grønhøj beach in northern Denmark.
Pensioner Elsebeth was walking her dog Zappi along the Danish coastline when she noticed an object which had washed up on the sand. On closer inspection, it was a glass bottle, with a rolled up piece of paper clearly visible inside.
Arriving home, and by now unable to contain her curiosity, Elsebeth managed to break open the bottle. And she was stunned to read the contents of the letter.
Sienna’s message in a bottle makes front-page news in Denmark
The news made the front page of the local newspaper, Løkken Folkeblad, who then contacted The Press and Journal.
After some investigation, The P&J was able to track down Sienna, now seven, in New Aberdour. She is a Primary Three pupil at St Combs School.
The two newspapers set up a video call between Sienna, her mother Cassie, and Elsebeth.
Along with Løkken Folkeblad’s Mads Laursen and Calum Petrie of The P&J, Sienna, Cassie and Elsebeth spent an hour chatting about what their respective parts of the world look like, and what they like to do in their spare time.
Elsebeth was particularly pleased when Sienna revealed her favourite subject is maths, as she is a retired maths teacher herself.
Sienna and Elsebeth have swapped email addresses and vowed to keep in touch.
New Aberdour family ‘shocked at how far it went’
Cassie says Sienna got the idea from a TV programme she’d seen.
“I don’t think she expected it to go so far,” she said.
“I showed her on the map and I think she was quite shocked at how far it went!
“She maybe thought it would reach somewhere else in Scotland, but not Denmark.
“Sienna and I would both love to keep in touch with Elsebeth.”
She added: “Sienna loves Lego, so who knows, maybe we’ll find our way over to Denmark at some point.”
When Elsebeth tried to send a reply to Sienna’s letter, it didn’t reach Aberdeenshire, so she enlisted Mads’ help at the Løkken Folkeblad.
‘It felt important to contact Sienna’
After making front-page news in Denmark, Elsebeth was contacted by a TV station who wanted to follow up on the story. However, she preferred to speak first to The P&J before taking things further.
“When I found the bottle on the beach, it was a ‘wow’ moment,” said Elsebeth.
“Never before have I found a bottle where I could see a letter inside.
“When I came home and saw the letter, I just thought it was such a beautiful and exciting letter, and I had this picture in my mind of the girl who wrote it.
“At once I wrote a letter in reply, but for whatever reason it never reached Sienna.
“I have been so excited to see Sienna. For me, it was very important that Sienna got the message that I’d found her letter.
“I am an old lady but I have grandchildren the same age as Sienna and it just felt important for me to meet her.
“I’ve told my grandchildren about Sienna and they think it’s very exciting. Perhaps they can write to each other.”
‘Unique and extraordinary story’
Mads said he was “delighted” to unite both sides of what he called a “unique and extraordinary” story.
“As a journalist, I thought it made most sense to contact a local journalist who would know the area.
“After looking at different newspapers, we decided to contact The Press and Journal because it’s a well-established, old newspaper. And so I made the call.
“The whole story is quite unique, it’s quite extraordinary. We’re just so excited we’ve found Sienna.”
Conversation