Many sailors from this side of the North Channel count Portpatrick as a favourite destination, either for cruising or racing purposes but that pretty tourist village and harbour were sealed off by police and Coastguard yesterday after a scallop dredger an unexploded shell or bomb aboard, berthed in the village, the Stranraer and Wigtownshire Free Press reports.
A Royal Navy spokeswoman said the device was moved to a safe location and a controlled explosion was carried out.
Thousands of tonnes of World War Two munitions were dumped out to sea, in the Beaufort's Dyke, between south-west Scotland and the Northern Irish coast, and some have washed up over the years on the coast of Galloway and on the Antrim coast.
Beaufort’s Dyke is a deep underwater trench between south-west Scotland and Northern Ireland and it was thought to be a safe, final resting place for the munitions. However, it is suspected that some may have been ditched closer to shore.
