MEMBERS of Ayr Rotary and their small army of volunteers took part in their annual beach clean at the weekend.

The Rotary have been cleaning Ayrshire Beaches since 2006 allowing them to create the 100-mile-long Ayrshire Coastal Path - now named one of ‘Scotland’s Great Trails by Scottish Natural Heritage.

During the initial survey work, they discovered many remote and filthy beaches along Ayrshire’s beautiful coastline, through which walkers would have had to trudge through drifts of plastic bottles. 

In 2007, they coordinated the efforts of Ayr, Alloway, Prestwick, Troon, and Girvan Rotary Clubs into developing Ayrshire’s Big Rotary Beach Clean - celebrating its 12th year on Saturday, April 7.

The five Rotary Clubs clean up all the beaches from Ballantrae to Troon - a distance of some forty miles.

Ron Ireland of Ayr Rotary said: “In 2017, we gathered 565 bag equivalents, which included - as well as a multitude of plastic barrels, drums, and fish boxes - a total of 2971 bottles of all shapes and sizes. 

“Over the past eleven years we must have removed around 33,000 bottles from Ayrshire beaches - not counting hundreds of five gallon drums.”

The results of this years beach clean will be published soon.