23-07-2025
Teens' World Cup message in a bottle found in Perth after almost 50 years
The 47-year-old note was discovered during renovation work at the city caravan park and was written during the 1978 World Cup.
A Perth message in a bottle – written on the day of a World Cup play off between Brazil and Italy almost 50 years ago – has been found at a city caravan park.
The letter, dated June 24, 1978, was recently dug up at Perth Caravan Park, Newhouse Farm, west of the A9, during improvement works there.
Written on headed notepaper, with a Perth Mavisbank Gardens address, the missive contains the names and ages of three teenagers with the note about the World Cup.
It is thought the bottle had originally been buried elsewhere and made its way to the caravan park in soil during the creation of a flower bed just before it opened 16 years ago.
The letter was discovered by landscaper Daniel Malcolm who had been using a mechanical digger for the work.
Fiona Sinclair - who owns and runs Perth Caravan Park with her husband Graeme – said: 'We were thrilled to find it and loved the old headed paper it was written on and also the fact that the friends had added an additional street number into the address.
'It's very detailed with the fact that the World Cup in Argentina was being held and we love that they put their ages and dates of birth.
'We would love to find out who wrote the note, where it was buried and if they are still friends.
'We think it was brought into the park when we first opened.
'We had the border put in and earth had to be brought in from outside and we assume the bottle came with that.
'We're not sure if the earth came from somewhere else on the farm or from outwith. It would be great to find out who wrote the note and where they had originally buried it as it's amazing that it survived being moved about a few times and very lucky the digger did not break it.'
The letter was discovered on June 28, 47 years and a few days since it was buried.
Perth Caravan Park is currently closed to the public and renovations are taking place. The park is expected to be up and running for April 2026.
Fiona said: 'We have been helping the council out with a contract. They are renovating the Double Dykes park and asked that while the renovations were taking place could we accommodate their tenants over the winter months when we are normally closed.
'Unfortunately their first contractor went bust which put the build back, this has ran on and on and so we have not been able to open so far this year.'
The decision to carry out improvements was made while the park is closed – included digging up the large flower border in the middle of the park.
Fiona added: 'Daniel Malcolm from Perth and Kinross Landscaping has been doing all the work on the park and so got his digger and started to remove the earth. Whilst doing this he saw something in the mud and got out to have a look. He saw that it was an old bottle and noticed something inside. He tried to open it but was shut tight so he smashed the bottle and found the note inside.'
