Water finds from ashes to gnashers, bust to rust

IT was a gruesome discovery that was simply urn-believable.

The mystery of human remains pulled from the Water of Leith, however, did not take long to solve.

Foul play was quickly ruled out as it was discovered to be a simple misunderstanding over the last wishes of a former city resident.

Volunteers who look after the waterway have revealed the retrieval of an urn and ashes as among the most unusual items collected in their regular clean-ups.

They have also recently found their first flatscreen television from the waters - making a change from older models that are normally found in the river - a set of false teeth, a surfboard and a corset.

Water of Leith Conservation Trust manager Helen Brown said the urn certainly topped the list.

She said: "The woman was from Australia and the family had posted her ashes back to be scattered in the Water of Leith. The person had just put the jar by the river bank rather than emptying it out.

"We do about 50 clean-ups a year and concentrate our efforts from March to June, when we have what we call a big annual clean-up season."

Starting at the end of this month, the clean-up involves volunteers and community groups who remove litter as well as bigger items such as shopping trolleys.

This year, the trust has secured 1800 in funding from the People's Postcode Lottery to meet the costs of gloves, litter pickers, first aid kits and hand wipes to distribute to volunteers.

Ms Brown said that while overall levels of dumped rubbish had been falling in recent years, it was vital for the river's water quality that the efforts continued.

She said: "We're protecting wildlife and one of the key things is to tidy the river up. That also helps us as well as mammals that use the river. You wouldn't want to walk down the Water of Leith if it looked like a dump and was full of juice cans.

"Because over the years we've been clearing up the river, now we can get to the old rusty stuff that's been stuck in (there] for a long time.

"There are bath tubs and shopping trolleys that have become an integrated part of the river bed."We can now spend time digging those out rather than the obvious things that have only been in there a couple of months."

The rubbish-clearing efforts were among the topics of discussion at the first Water of Leith conference held yesterday.

Ms Brown said over the next three months about 18 rubbish removal events would take place, and those interested in volunteering can contact the trust.

"They can either join our volunteer team, or they can look for the posters locally when clean-ups are going to be taking place in their area and join the troops," she said.

"We have one at Redbraes on Friday, March 18, another on April 10 that starts from the visitors centre in Slateford and one on May 1 by the Gallery of Modern Art."

HAUL PART OF THE SERVICE

Every year volunteers pull a variety of weird and wonderful items from the Water of Leith during clean-ups. Here's a list of some of the more unusual discoveries in the river:

• Couches

• Fridges

• Duvets

• Washing machines

• A corset

• An urn containing a woman's ashes

• Televisions (including a flatscreen set)

• Bath tubs

• A surfboard

• Deer antlers