Ashes of couple on 'one last adventure' found

Mike Nicholls found the bottle on Woolacombe Beach

A message in a bottle, said to contain the ashes of a couple on "one last adventure", has washed up on a beach.

The bottle was found by Mike Nicholls, on Woolacombe Beach, in Devon, on 9 November.

The message asks finders to put the bottle back in the sea and use hashtags to tell the family where it was found.

Mr Nicholls said he had tried to contact the family, but had not had a response. He said it would be "wonderful" to get in contact with them.

Mr Nicholls said the bottle stood out and was very distinctive

Mr Nicholls said he had not had any luck with the hashtags

Mr Nicholls said he opened the "very distinctive" bottle with tweezers to reveal the note and posted pictures on social media on 24 November.

"There was nothing inside it except what I found and it was quite well sealed so I possibly was the first one to find it but where it will end up next I don't know," he said.

"I put the word out to people I know but no-one had any luck locating the family as yet," he said.

He added he would like to find the family because "if it has come from that far away, or who knows might even be from Australia, it's probably from around the corner, but I'm just fascinated".

He said: "I resealed it and I let it go off Ilfracombe Pier as the tide was flowing out so it felt quite poignant to me personally as an ex-hospice worker.

"It wouldn't have felt right to keep the bottle, it just didn't feel right to have them in my home so I let them continue their journey."