Now that IS magic! Harry Potter train guard and the mystery of the lost £10 returned by a seagull

Published: 19:33, 5 August 2026 | Updated: 19:33, 5 August 2026 It sounds like a storyline straight out of JK Rowling’s books.  But a worker on the Harry Potter ‘Hogwarts’ train did witness a magical event when a seagull turned up carrying a £10 note she’d lost two weeks earlier. Florence McLean was staking at the Mallaig train station in the Highlands when she accidentally dropped the cash on the tracks. The 65-year-old works on the famous Jacobite Steam Train which appears as the Hogwarts Express in the film franchise of the boy wizard’s adventures. But she had no time to recover the note before the train headed back to Fort William and when she returned the money was gone. Incredibly, weeks later as the train once again returned to Mallaig, Ms McLean spotted a seagull - holding a tenner in its beak. Florence Mclean with the returned £10 note in front of the Jacobite Steam Train, which was famously featured in the Harry Potter movies The seagull with the missing £10 note She said: ‘The £10 had flown out my pocket about two weeks previous. ‘I’d asked the guy at the ticket office if he could get it once the train went away, but he phoned me and said he couldn’t. ‘Two weeks later, I’m standing in the platform, and a seagull flew over my head with the £10 in its mouth, and landed virtually in the same place where I dropped it.’ The bird eventually dropped the note, and Ms McLean quickly retrieved it, in awe at the unique situation. After working on the train for 31 years, she says this is by far the most bizarre situation she has experienced on the job. She added: ‘I waited till the train had shunted back to the platform, where it had dropped it, and picked it up. ‘A couple of the workers were standing beside me, and said “look, there’s a seagull flying over with your ten pounds”. ‘It has to be one of the most unusual things that’s ever happened - don’t get me wrong, there are some silly things that have happened over the years - but this was bizarre. ‘The fact that it flew over there, when I’m only in Mallaig for a couple of hours a day at lunch time, and I’d only been standing there for five or ten minutes. ‘I think it’s absolutely hilarious - it’s been so funny.’