We are extremely lucky to live on such a gorgeous coastline and one of our favourite hobbies is to go looking for Sea glass and fossils. We are 5 minutes away from the best Sea glass beach in the country and over time have developed our knowledge on the best times to go etc.
Over the years it has become a family hobby that we all enjoy, the boys look for sea glass and fossils and Elliot has become slightly addicted to finding the most sea glass with each visit. We do go to others beaches looking for sea glass but I am keeping our favourite two secret because we like it quiet.
What is Sea glass?
Sea glass is a total gem in my opinion and you can get some beautiful colours. Sea glass is weathered glass that is found on the beach. The weathering process produces a frosted glass. Genuine sea glass is usually used for jewellery and decorations. It can take up to 200 years for sea glass to weather. The bottle works that were scattered along the coast used to dump huge amounts of waste straight into the sea and that is why we get lots of it in the North East. Seaham in particular has more because that is where most of the glass factories were.
The beauty of sea glass is you never know what you might find, you never get two that are the same and you can get some fantastic colours and what we call multis, which are, a mix of colours. My best piece or at least my favourite is a lump of red. I am going to be getting a ring made with a lovely blue piece I found.
Where to find Sea Glass
Without hesitation the best place to find it is in Seaham. You have a few options to choose from, but we find heading to Seaham Hall Beach (aka Vane Tempest/ North Beach) head down the steps from the car park and turn left that is the best place to head. We find heading down later in the evening is the best option, its not as busy and its just a nicer experience. Be wave wary though, as they can be brutal. Loads of parking spaces, also Ice Cream and food and drinks available.
You can also find some great pieces along Blast beach and Chemical beach, however these are a bit difficult to get to, especially with younger kids. We tend to just head to the beach and if we find some then great if not then it wasn't meant to be.
A little further down is Blackhall Rocks, You tend to find some great fossils here but you can also find some great pieces of sea glass too. This does tend to get really busy, especially as the weather warms. Not the best for parking but you can park up the side road, just be mindful of other passing traffic trying to get through.
Crimdon Dene, is another great beach to head to for sea glass. Just North of Hartlepool, this is a gorgeous beach, even if its not for sea Glass hunting, it is worthy of just visiting. The only downside is the caravan park that sits above it on the cliff edge. As you can imagine, summer time and school holidays are busy so this is best to head too during term time. Ample parking here.
Amble Beach, this one was a bit of a surprise actually. We had visited Amble one day and headed to the beach and as we were walking along we spotted Sea Glass. Not as much here as other places, but it is there.
Have fun sea glass hunting.
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