A DOG walker had to do "a double take" when she came across an octopus on the seashore at Musselburgh recently.

Shona Grieve, 55, from Longniddry, who now lives in the Fisherrow area, was taking her two-year-old white German shepherd Ivy for her regular walk on the beach when she saw the dead creature.

She said: "I was walking at the Fisherrow end of the beach beside the the bowling green.

"I had thrown Ivy's ball and walked to where the ball landed and saw the octopus.

"I walk the beach every day, sometimes three times a day, with Ivy. In all the years of living by the sea, I have never seen an octopus before. So for me it was a very unusual find. Ivy was a bit curious of it too but more interested in her ball to be fair."

She added: "I kept returning to it, to convince myself it was dead which it definitely was.

"The sea was far out but to reassure myself I managed to put it in a pool of water. This was early on and there was nobody else about to show so I took a picture.

"I have since been told it is getting more common to find them. I had never seen one before – my only rare sighting on the beach was when I was a child and found a small pool of seahorses."

An East Lothian Council spokesperson said: "The lesser octopus is not that common but they do turn up occasionally, cast up especially after a storm or following prolonged rough weather.

"Live specimens have also been found in rock pools at the lowest part of the beach."