A mysterious metal tube. A Russian ice-breaker ship. An unlikely 4,000km journey out of the Arctic Circle.
Here we have all the ingredients for a Cold War thriller or perhaps a horror film – who knows what Thing the tube might be concealing after all.
Fortunately for Sophie Curran and Conor McClory, two Irish surfers, the washed-up cylinder turned out to be more fascinating than pure fear.
Inside they found a time capsule from a crew of Russian North Pole explorers.
It’s believed the capsule travelled nearly 4,000km from the ice floes of the Arctic Circle to the slightly less icy, but still pretty cold, Atlantic waters off Bloody Foreland in Gweedore, County Donegal.
It included letters and photos of explorers onboard the 50 Years of Victory, the world’s second biggest ice-breaking ship, from 2018. (BBC)