New sign/board at Islay’s Kilchoman beach

Islay NewsLast week a very nice new sign/board popped up at the start of the track through the dunes to Kilchoman beach. A few weeks ago I wrote about a way to help keeping Islay’s beaches clean, Fiona MacGillivray has taken this idea further and written a poem about it. That poem has now been printed on a sign/board and the first one has been put up at the entrance to Kilchoman beach:

Picture of a sign with a poem encouraging people to pick up three pieces of rubbish from a beach
The sign/board with Fiona’s poem

The poem reads (for the benefit of those with a screen reader, in case they can’t read text in pictures):

Three pieces of rubbish!

Make this beach plastic free, Oh what a sight that would be!

Plastic litter on the beach is a scourge to man and beast.

It floats on in, off the sea, in a relentless tide of mans debris.

Piled high we throw up our hands & cry How can we just let this lie?

But with visitors and walkers each day we reduce it day by day.

Pick up three pieces of rubbish each and this beach will be a peach.

There is a bin that sits just here pop it in and you can cheer

Then this beach will just be Sand and sea and clutter free!

© Fiona MacGillivray

As it says in the poem, there is a convenient bin right here:

Picture of a sign encouraging visitors to pick up rubbish on a beach with a bin behind it
The bin right behind the sign

I understand there are plans to put up signs at other beaches on Islay as well. Hopefully they will encourage more people to help with keeping Islay’s beaches clean, so that we can all enjoy pristine beaches (of course it would be even better to avoid the plastic rubbish in the first place, but that’s another topic).

 

Author: Armin Grewe

I blog about Islay.

12 thoughts on “New sign/board at Islay’s Kilchoman beach”

  1. After having visited your beautiful island in September, 2018, I can surely understand why you would want to keep it free of litter, especially the non-biodegradable plastic. I commend you for this recent attempt and also the writing of Fiona MacGillivray.

    I am also interested in the ancestry of Fiona MacGillivray since my maiden name was Judith MacGilvray and my great-grandfather, John MacGilvray, was born at Bowmore, Isle of Islay. Is there any way you might pass this information along to her? Thank you!

  2. As many will know there are two Islays (at least), the Islay in Scotland this blog is mostly about and then there’s another Islay in the Arequipa region in Peru. It looks like they’ve got a similar problem with litter and rubbish washing up on their beaches and people having to go on beach cleans to tidy it all up. While I don’t speak any Spanish I’m pretty sure that’s what a good part of this video is about:

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYfHxiNPwH4?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-GB&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=840&h=473%5D
    HOMENAJE A ISLAY 2020.Looks like they picked up at least two big sacks of rubbish, some good work there! I hope that you’ve enjoyed this view of the other Islay and learning that they share some of the same issues.
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    Author: Armin Grewe

    I blog about Islay.
    View all posts by Armin Grewe



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