Sensational Seaham - the hunt for red seaglass!

In July of this year, something amazing happened. I took a trip to Seaham on the north-east coast of England with my beautiful family to hunt for seaglass. Who knew this would ever happen? I had dreamed of Seaham ever since I started to set seaglass into my handmade pieces of jewellery. Hell, before I even knew I would set seaglass (!) and before I knew Seaham existed, when I liked to collect little pieces as a kid. Ok, so it is only about a 5 hour drive away but it seemed like a mammoth journey with a 15 month old!

Seaham did not disappoint. We stayed in an amazing Folly about a 10 minute drive from Seaham in a place called Hawthorn. We arrived to a (good) shudder-inducing scene out of Wuthering Heights; the wind was whistling about an open field, the grey sea sat calmly in the distance, and our wonderful accommodation at Kinley Tower loomed out at us with the bluest late afternoon sky as a backdrop. We couldn’t wait to see inside. But equally, we couldn’t wait to get down to the beach.

I had heard stories about the wonders of Seaham for a while - I had seen images on Instagram of gemstone-like pieces of seaglass in a glittering array of colours, bright and vibrant, wistful and hypnotic, strewn across the beach. So far, my seaglass hunting had taken place mostly in the Isle of Sheppey (although more exotically - but briefly - whilst holidaying in Greece, Croatia and Portugal). I have found some amazing blue seaglass and pottery pieces in the Isle of Sheppey, don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful - but reds, and yellows and turquoises and multis? This was the stuff dreams were made of! I had my heart set on a piece of red. I really did. That’s all I wanted. Just one piece. Then I would stop. Hehe. Unless you are a seaglass hunter or scavenger, you really don’t know the bug that gets you with the hunt. It’s always “just one more stretch of beach”, or “just five more minutes”, or “just one more unusual piece”, and then another hour has seemingly passed.

The first hunt at the harbour ended a little disappointingly. We were not knowledgeable about where to go and just dived down to the first stretch of beach we could get our feet on - it was late afternoon after all. We did our research that night. whilst we laughed about carrying our son in his buggy down lots of steps and across massive pebbles to get to the harbour. We were excited for the following day.

Seaham Beach was where we headed. We turned into a car park at a cafe called Tonia’s and then made our way down the many steps to the beach. It was a great vision to head down those steps each day, wondering what we would find. The weather was amazingly warm for the UK, for up north (though what was I really basing this on?). It hit 30 degrees that day. We had a wonderful day at the beach. My son was not too fond of the noise of the waves and so happily played with us on the sand, digging around and playing with pebbles and his bucket and spade. We found some amazing pieces when the sun glinted or a fresh wave came in - it was a little like magic as your eyes played tricks on you - one minute, just sand - the next, some little glass treasures. I found some pink and turquoise seaglass, and there was an endless supply of perfectly frosted whites and greens.

Some awesome days followed. We wandered around the town, marvellously untouched. The beach front itself was surprisingly free of commercialism. The coast was wild and ragged. It wasn’t overrun despite the heat. We had the most delicious fish and chips from a place on the seafront called Downey’s (the batter on the fish had been fried in beef dripping - sounds awful - but it was the tastiest batter EVER).

Towards the end of the week, the weather turned a little. We spent an amazing day out visiting the Roman Vindolanda Fort and Museum and the Arbeia Roman Fort at South Shields. South Shields beach was amazingly quiet for a Saturday afternoon (we were the only ones there in a huge spread of sand). We also visited Durham, spending the time strolling about with our boy in the buggy and taking him for his first trip inside a cathedral.

We got into our stride at Seaham Beach, which we would visit in the mornings generally before our Jesse’s nap time. It was quite something seeing lots of like minded people picking about in the sand and pebbles and shoreline for glass. There were awesomely friendly locals (you know who you are) and a real comradery about the seaglass to be found there.

We had found some gorgeous pieces of seaglass by this point. But still, no red. Then - it happened - my husband stumbled upon a piece. And a few seconds later, I found a piece myself. If I recall (or maybe it is the romantic in me), it was our last day. Our beachcombing was starting to become a bit more frantic (as time ran out) so I think for our sanity, it was probably a good thing our week there had come to an end.

We are already thinking about going back next year. But aren’t there plenty of places to find seaglass in the UK? Answers on a postcard please. There certainly won’t be anywhere quite as special as this rough, savage beauty of coastline. I may have taken away lots of seaglass but I certainly left a piece of my heart there on the beach (cheesy, but true).