The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Bikes pile up as volunteer clears burn
Aman has told how he pulled more than a dozen bikes and scooters from a Fife burn in the space of just 15 minutes.
Ten bicycles and four scooters were retrieved from the Meddies burn near the entrance of Lochore Meadows Country Park – Fife’s most visited outdoor attraction.
Andrew Dunlop, who volunteers his time to help clean up the environment, initially waded into the water after a friend told him he could see a single bike.
But within minutes of pulling out the first metal frame, Andrew was retrieving one after another – and says he began to wonder if it would ever stop.
“It’s was incredible, they just kept on coming,” he said.
“I was pulling one bike over to the bank and it suddenly hooked on to another, so I went back into the water and there were more and more. I couldn’t believe it.
“It’s my second biggest haul to date and the most pulled from such a small area.”
The 27-year-old from Cardenden set up his Clean Up Fife volunteer group 18 months ago.
He uses his skills as a keen magnet angler – which involves “fishing” rivers and waterways with rope and a strong magnet – to clean up areas that have been used as dumping grounds.
Andrew now has hundreds of followers on his Clean Up Fife Facebook page, where he posts regular updates about his successes.
In September 2021, he hauled 85 tyres out of the River Ore in just two days after Cardenden was hit by flooding.
His work to improve the countryside has also earned him many plaudits, including an Unsung Hero award from Kingdom FM.
However, his exploits can also be risky. Only a few weeks ago, while angling in the Union Canal near Fountain Park in Edinburgh, Andrew’s magnet brought to the surface a live Second World War grenade.
He said: “I must admit that was a shock, especially as I had to alert the police – who in turn sent out the bomb squad.
“They X-rayed the grenade and found it was still live so could quite easily have exploded.”
Less of a risk, but just as intriguing, was another of Andrew’s finds – which harks back to Fife’s mining heritage.
He said: “I pulled up a miner’s lamp charger from water near Cardenden a while back.
“Apparently it was a very early version that had been discarded.
“That’s now been cleaned up by mining enthusiasts and was donated to the museum at West Wemyss.”