When were students, my friend said he had found the front ends of two feet on the beach. We didn't believe him at first, but he was insistent. The theory was that they had come off a sailor in some kind of horrible accident with an anchor chain.

But I never fully believed it and it bothered me for years. Yesterday I was on the same beach with another student friend from that time, and we were talking about it. Then, there in front of us, was this. I have just posted it to our friend asking "is this what you found that day on Aberlady beach?"

Dead Men's Fingers scientific name is Alcyonium digitatum. It is a so-called 'soft coral', a rubbery mass supported by tiny internal spicules, with the polyps protruding from its surface. The ripe gonads may have a pink tinge, probably late in the year.