Seagull returns lost £10 note to staff member on Harry Potter train

A worker on a picturesque railway line used in the Harry Potter films lost a £10 note on a platform – only to have it returned weeks later by a seagull.

Florence Mclean had boarded the Jacobite, a steam locomotive – which runs on the Scottish line where the iconic Hogwarts Express scene was filmed – having lost her cash.

The train had already left Mallaig for Fort William when she realised the tenner had blown out of her pocket.

Florence asked the worker in the station’s ticket office if he could see the missing note, only to hear back by phone that he had had no luck locating the money.

The 65-year-old, who had worked on the steam railway for 31 years, searched the station later that day but didn’t find the note.

However, in a magical twist, Florence returned to Mallaig two weeks later to find her £10 delivered to her by airmail – by a seagull.

She said: ‘It’s the most unusual thing that has ever happened to me.

‘I had been standing with a couple of other workers when one suddenly pointed and said, “Look! There’s a seagull flying over with your £10!”

‘Don’t get me wrong, there are some silly things that have happened over the years – but this was bizarre!’

She added: ‘The fact that it flew over there, when I am only in Mallaig for a couple of hours a day at lunchtime, and I’d only been standing there for five or ten minutes… I think it’s absolutely hilarious.’

Operating on the West Highland Line, the Jacobite has run under various guises since the 1980s.

The 41-mile route was first used as the famous backdrop to Harry’s journey to Hogwarts in 2001.

The original maroon steam train used in the films has since been transferred to the Warner Bros Studio tour at Leavesden Studios outside London.

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