A dogwalker was bowled over recently after stumbling across a large octopus on Irvine Beach - the biggest of its kind he has spotted in Scotland.
Ryan Brawley was walking his dog at 7.30am when he noticed the large animal around 50 to 70 metres from the car park, stranded from the shore and horrifyingly covered in litter.
Calling on the help of some wild swimmers nearby, Ryan and the women managed to return the giant octopus to the water where it eventually "came to its senses" and was presumably saved from death.
Ryan told the Times: "It was a large octopus, biggest I have seen in Scotland. I think it came in with the high tide and got stranded when the tide went out. The only reason I knew it was alive was when I nudged it with my foot and it changed colour.
"Luckily there were a couple of wild swimmers so when I went and asked them if I could use their gloves to pick it up and put it back, the woman said she would do it as she was already wet and was in her wet suit. She picked it up and took it back. She says it didn’t move for a few seconds then when it came to its senses it gave her a squirt of its ink.
"I must add there was a bit of litter lying round it and before I took the picture I took a bit of rope off it and what looked like a clear poly bag so I'm not sure if it got caught in that when it was swimming."
He continued: "A lot of people don’t realise the marine life we have right on our door step so I was annoyed when I seen it at first but luckily we got it back in water.
"I’ve seen loads of things like this when I’ve been out on the boats but no matter how many times you come across, it always makes you smile."
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