Scottish girl’s 25-year-old message in a bottle found in Norway

A Scottish eight-year-old who wrote a hilarious note about her life back in 1996 likely had no idea it would be found decades later and more than 1000km away.

There were plenty of exciting things that happened way back in 1996 but things seemed pretty simple for a Scottish schoolgirl back then.

A message in a Sprite bottle set adrift by the then-eight-year-old girl was finally found 25 years later after it washed up on a beach 1300km away, The Sun reported.

The author Joanna Buchan, now 34, included plenty of details about her school projects, her dog, how she loved collecting Blu Tack and that she hated boys.

Dr Buchan sent off the message 25 years ago. Picture: Supplied

The note travelled more than 1000km. Picture: Supplied

The message was cast into the North Sea off Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, in the north of Scotland in a plastic Sprite bottle in 1996 as part of a school project.

It was discovered on the uninhabited island of Gasvaer, Norway, in 2020 and the woman who found it contacted Ms Buchan via social media.

Dr Buchan, now a doctor living in Australia, said she barely remembered writing the message.

“At first I didn't remember the message in a bottle, but then I started to have a vague recollection of a project we did at school,” she said.

“It was a dusty memory but once I saw the letter I knew right away it was me, I recognised my handwriting, which is definitely not as neat now.

“I just died with laughter when I read it back – especially the way I ended it with, ‘By the way I hate boys.’ “It was just a curled up bit of paper. I can’t believe it survived so long in the North Sea.”

The note held together pretty well. Picture: Supplied

The text exchange. Picture: Supplied

Dr Buchan said the teacher who got the kids to write the messages has since been in touch, after her Facebook post about the discovery went viral.

“My teacher from the time got in touch with me and was really chuffed it had been found,” she said.

"One bottle was found early on after the bottles went out to sea but there haven't been any others found for 25 years.”

The woman who found the bottle and the message, Norwegian Elena Andreassen Haga, told BBC Scotland she had to be careful with the fragile note.

“We opened it and we had to be really careful because, as you can see by the picture of the letter, it has probably been in the water for some time, but we managed to fold it out and we're able to read that this is actually from Scotland, so that was kind of cool," she said.

Ms Haga and her son with the bottle. Picture: Supplied

Ms Haga found the note back in mid-2020 but her message to Dr Buchan was only recently seen.

“My father also found a message in a bottle when he was about five and he's 66 now so that’s quite some time ago, but in the same area,” she said.

“So this is like it’s normal to have things washed up on shore but it’s not very often that you find something with this kind of significance.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission