A message in a bottle thrown out to sea from the Isle of Sheppey on New Year’s Eve has washed up to shore in the Netherlands.

The handwritten note was discovered 270 miles away across the North Sea in Schiermonnikoog, an island in the northern Netherlands.

And the person who stumbled upon it during a morning beach walk has contacted KentOnline's sister paper the Times Guardian in an attempt to track down the writer.

Harm Kanters, who works for Vodafone in the Netherlands as a network architect, said he was pleasantly surprised to find the message in a bottle.

The 46-year-old said: “My mother-in-law was born on the beautiful island of Schiermonnikoog, that’s why we try to visit at least once a year.

“I went for a walk on a remote beach at 8.40am that morning. I like to see if anything nice has washed to shore.

“There, in the middle of this huge sandy beach, I saw a small bottle, it was sealed off so I decided to open it at home.

“Through the glass, I could read one English word, so I was very curious to open it.”

He added: “I let my daughter open it and read the text. It was a very pleasant surprise to read such lovely words. We all smiled and felt happy. We share this story as often as we can.”

The letter, which was sent from Minster beach on December 31, 2017, read: “The finder of this message in the bottle is wished good luck and good fortune for 2018 from the people of the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, England.”

Mr Kanters said: “It is an approximately 500 km swim from Sheppey to Schiermonnikoog, so I really felt lucky to find such a nice gift.”

The father-of-two would now like to find out who sent this message in a bottle on New Year’s Eve.

“I’d like to let the person know we found his or her present in good and shiny order and tell them how much we liked to unexpectedly find such a heart-warming piece of paper,” he added.

Are you the sender who threw the letter out to sea? Or do you know who did? Email timesguardian@thekmgroup.co.uk