ST CYRUS is a sleepy little village in the heart of the Howe of the Mearns, where it rarely gets more exciting than a visit to the annual fish festival in nearby Johnshaven.
But yesterday the hamlet was abuzz with speculation of terrorist conspiracies, armed gangs and murder following the discovery of an arsenal of weapons, dumped in a river less than two miles from the village.
The rumours started at the weekend af
ter two anglers fishing in the North Esk, below the viaduct which once carried the east coast rail line, stumbled across two rifles in the water.
Grampian Police then brought in a specialist diving team to scour the riverbed. They recovered what the force described as a "large quantity" of weapons – handguns, rifles and shotguns – and ammunition strewn across the river bed.
The riverbank, below the viaduct and the 232-year-old Lower North Water road bridge – which spans the North Esk to the north of Montrose – was cordoned off to the public as the police operation was mounted.
Ronnie Bradburn, 44, who works in the nearby Eskview farmhouse, the closest building to where the arsenal was found, said: "There was an unmarked police car parked at the top of the road and police all along the riverbank. There were all sorts of rumours going about.
"I thought they must have found a body – that it was a murder or something like that."
Iain Baillie, who owns the St Cyrus Hotel in the village, said: "Everybody is mystified and wondering how the weapons could have got there.
"It seems a strange one. The area is too far away from the road bridge to think that somebody could have chucked the weapons out of a moving vehicle.
"But if two anglers came across the guns then whoever did it hasn't gone to a great deal of bother to try and hide them – have they?
"Everybody coming into the pub has been talking about it. It's a bit of a mystery."
Detective Constable Craig Dunbar, one of the Grampian Police officers involved, described the discovery of the weapons haul as "most unusual." He said: "The force was alerted on Friday afternoon by two fishermen who reported that they had found two rifles in the river.
"We carried out a full search and a number of other weapons were found scattered about the riverbed. They are a mixture of rifles, shotguns and handguns.
"A lot them are old weapons, dating back to the First and Second World Wars. It is difficult to say how many weapons we have recovered in total. They are in various states of assembly – some complete, some incomplete."
Det Con Dunbar said a number of the weapons bore serial numbers and investigations were continuing to trace the history and ownership of the guns. The weapons were also being forensically examined.
He stressed there was so far no evidence to suggest that the weapons were linked to terrorism or criminality.
"There is nothing at all that would lead us to think that," he said. "But we really need to get to the bottom of how these weapons have come to be there.
"There could be fairly innocent explanation. They could be part of someone's collection, or a relative's collection that someone has been clearing out and has decided to dump – or it could be linked to criminality as well. We are keeping an open mind."
