Northern Irish Coast Sea Glass

Sea Glass

Welcome everyone! I’ve made so many wonderful memories sea glass hunting that I decided it would be best to keep them all in one place, both for myself and for potential customers from my Etsy sea glass jewellery and craft store. ** CLICK HERE TO SHOP OUR SEA GLASS JEWELLERY COLLECTIONS**  Now you can all share in our foraging adventures ! I keep each batch of sea glass separate so that I can recall the memories of each particular day while I make the jewellery, sharing with you which beach each piece is from and what we did the day we discovered it. Join us , where the forest meets the sea…

My Love Of Sea Glass

I adore the romance and mystery of finding these shining jewels amongst the pebbles/rocks. To walk along the beach with the sound of the waves and the salty sea air looking for treasures or ‘mermaid tears’ as they’re also called. Knowing that what was once thrown away as trash, has been taken by the ocean, tumbled and shaped over many years into these smooth precious keepsakes. Wondering what their story is and how they came to be there. This is where I’ll share each adventure we have , mostly from the North Antrim coast here in Ireland, a place that is very dear to my heart and holds many special memories for me ever since I was a child. Thank you for being part of our journey 🙂

Copper Rainbow Sea Glass jewellery…Where the forest meets the sea…

Glenarm Beach

Filming With The BBC – September 2021

Never did I think that my sea glass obsession would lead to a wonderful afternoon filming with local tv presenter Barra Best for BBC1 Northern Ireland! Barra, Coppertop and I spent a few hours combing the sands of Glenarm Beach on the Antrim Coast for our ocean jewels. We chatted about the origins of sea glass, why we love it so much and going through my favourites box before making some simple surfer necklaces. A great experience for Coppertop to see behind the scenes of how programmes are made. You can find Barra’s Wild Days Out on BBC Iplayer . 

Filming on the Antrim Coast with local tv presenter Barra Best for BBC1 Northern Ireland

1st Trip

Aaaah bliss...
Aaaah bliss…

I had no idea that day just what chain of events would happen after being at the beach! We had stopped for coffee at the walled castle gardens before taking a walk in the sunshine through the town where we picked up a gorgeous rosemary focaccia bread from a new craft store called Blackthorn and Willow (which I’m now honoured to have stocking my jewellery!)We discovered a stunning forest hike with red squirrels, blackberries, honeysuckle and ferns. We searched for faeries, played by the river and chased falling leaves (read more about my love of Glenarm here ). After a few hours we headed down to the beach and I found my first few pieces of sea glass. I got excited and kept hunting. Coppertop hunted with me, crying out excitedly as she found some shining among the pebbles, before she started splashing along the shoreline while I kept looking. We came away with a large bag of glass and as I walked along the beach I daydreamed about how I could create jewellery with these little treasures. Little did I know… 🙂

2nd Trip

Boots filled to the top with sea water!
Boots filled to the top with sea water!

This beach trip was a bit of a surprise. We’d been at a corn harvest earlier in the day where we got to see old fashioned threshers processing the corn stacks into the grain and stalks. I t was really interesting to watch and very humbling seeing all the work involved to produce food that we take for granted. It definitely made me feel more connected to the land, especially after being part of a barley harvest the week before.

So after the harvest we drove over to the coast for a quick beach walk which turned into a foraging session and some chips down by the shore. The seagulls were doing their best to nab our chips but we managed to wolf them down. Coppertop had a bit too much fun splashing on the shoreline as she squelched over to me with her boots full to the brim with sea water! After a quick clothes change we were on our way back to survey our finds which included a beautiful amber teardrop!

Another day's treasures, check out my perfect amber teardrop, can't wait to see the jewellery piece for that!
Another day’s treasures, check out my perfect amber teardrop, can’t wait to see the jewellery piece for that!

3rd Trip

Still a bit grey and drizzly but one of my favourite places in the world
Still a bit grey and drizzly but one of my favourite places in the world

We obviously hadn’t learned our lesson from getting drenched at Drains Bay earlier in the day (see further down this post) as we decided to head on round the coast to my favourite spot. It was still a bit grey and drizzly but not enough to stop a little beach combing! As we trawled through the pebbles, a local photographer came over to ask what on earth we were doing and to take some pictures of us. So out there somewhere are photos of a very self conscious moi awkwardly squinting at a piece of sea glass in the sunlight! I got the chance to take a few moments by the water to breathe deeply and watch the gentle waves in silence. I left feeling energised, at peace and uplifted. Just wonderful memories 🙂

Waterloo Bay (Larne)

1st Trip

Our surprise new favourite beach!
Our surprise new favourite beach!

I wasn’t expecting to find this hidden treasure of a beach when we visited Larne that day! We’d gone for breakfast at a seaside café there and decided to go for a walk afterwards. What we found at the end of the path was a lovely wee stony beach looking out across to Scotland. Coppertop and I hunted for glass ( she was better at it than me as usual) then she and my dad played amongst the pebbles at the shoreline, running away from the waves while I kept searching for more ‘Mermaid Tears’, marvelling at how many perfectly smooth treasures I was finding. It made my heart sing listening to Coppertop’s shrieks of laughter with my dad as background noise. We returned to the car with full pockets as I hadn’t brought a bag on our surprise trip 🙂 I think it was this day that I really started thinking I could make a go of handcrafting these treasures into jewellery pieces as I found so many perfect pieces!

2nd Trip

Look at that! Such a beautiful sight while beachcombing
Look at that! Such a beautiful sight while beachcombing

Our second trip here set the trend for quite a few of our sea glass hunting trips – being in the pouring rain! We had gone for breakfast then decided on a foraging trip, however, the dark clouds rolled in and the heavens opened leaving us drenched. However, the skies soon made up for it with some of the most stunning rainbows I’ve ever seen, I wish I’d been able to capture them all on camera but alas I only managed a few.

It was high tide that day and the storm brought the tide even closer so we had a few near misses with the water, running down the pebble slope to fetch sea glass glinting amongst the water then slipping and sliding back up before the waves caught us! So worth it as we found some stunning pieces that day. Including my first ever pink piece which had me jumping up and down clapping on the beach while my loving daughter solemnly stared up at me like I had gone insane. Only other pink piece we got was on a further trip to that beach so now every time I’m there, I’m keeping a look out for more!

My beautiful pink piece! How pretty is that :)
My beautiful pink piece! How pretty is that 🙂

Drains Bay

Very atmospheric clouds that emptied over us soon after. Love those waves!
Very atmospheric clouds that emptied over us soon after. Love those waves!

This was a really funny and successful hunting trip! On a gloomy day we decided to try our luck at a beach we hadn’t combed before. We’d only been at the beach for a few minutes when the ominous dark grey clouds rolled in and emptied all over us. Combined with high winds and a high tide, we still managed to gather a decent haul, despite questioning our sanity on several occasions. At one point we even ended up back in the car for ten minutes when the rain got too heavy, then got back out there like the dedicated beach combers we are! On this trip the tide won and I ended up squelching around the rest of the day in soggy socks! Totally worth it though as we ended up finding the biggest piece of peacock blue that we ever found which I turned into a necklace for myself. I also found my first marble (dad has found loads, *grumbles*) which I was really excited by. So excited that I couldn’t get my camera to focus! Of course that could have also been the hypothermia setting in…

 

2nd Trip
Our wonderful sprake after we’d taken it home and spruced it up!

This was a gorgeously sunny trip up the coast with Coppertop and my parents, where we were soooo lucky to find what came to be known as our ‘sprake’ – half spade, half rake!! Left lying on the sand , completely rusted and wrecked, it was taken home and brought back to life! Rust gone and freshly painted silver, it’s the perfect sea glass hunting accessory 🙂

We found some gorgeous new pieces of glass that day. Coppertop had fun writing in the sand and playing chicken with the waves. Hearing her giggle with the surf crashing in the background means the world to me

Another glorious day up the Antrim Coast here in Northern Ireland

 

3rd Trip

Another stunning rainbow over the ocean on the Antrim Coast

Lucked out with another stunning rainbow over the sea on our 3rd trip to Drains Bay! Such a beautiful day with a few light rainclouds that resulted in seeing my favourite thing over the ocean. But I think my favourite part was seeing the very cool stone Zen stack that someone else had built and left on the beach. After doing a spot of sea glass hunting (of course), we headed further on up the coast for a drive before heading back to the countryside to examine our spoils

Zen stack made by someone else and left for us to discover

 

Port Muck

The stunning view on the way round to the cliffs by the bird sanctuary
The sun starting to set over Port Muck harbour

There are just SO many wonderful moments in this trip that it’s hard to even write them all down. We had been out for a summer evening’s dinner with my dad while mum was in England when he made the suggestion to head here. I’d never been before and according to dad, it was just a little harbour, nothing too exciting. Well… we arrived as the sun was starting to sink a little, so the whole cove was bathed in that gorgeous summer evening light. After some sea glass hunting on the small beach we went for a walk up beyond the tiny harbour and discovered a stunning view over a bird sanctuary we didn’t know existed!! I don’t have the best head for heights but standing up there on the cliffs with the sea and island below, bathed in that golden butterscotch summer light…completely worth it. As usual it’s the unplanned adventures that work out the most memorable!

Standing at the cliff looking down at the bird sanctuary

Browns Bay

The eerie stillness and grey skies over Browns Bay
Coppertop enjoying the mini waves at Browns Bay

Well the weather on this trip wasn’t quite so glorious as Port Muck but there was an eerie beauty in the flat grey skies and the perfectly still water, hardly a breath of air stirred. We hadn’t expected to find much glass here but we were pleasantly surprised! Plus of course Coppertop ended up splashing in the water as per usual. We’d been for some gorgeous blood orange sorbet at The Rinka in Islandmagee before heading here for a quick trip, as even half an hour by the water seems to reset my outlook on things. I have many fond memories of Browns Bay while growing up so it’s lovely to now be able to share that with the next generation, especially with someone who is a dab hand at finding sea glass in the least likely places 😉

On the drive to the beach we had seen some stunning wildflowers by a field that I just had to stop and photograph on the way back. Early summer wildflowers are one of my favourite things to see so I was thrilled to find such a gorgeous patch of them!

The stunning display of wildflowers on the way to the beach

Hazelbank

Moments before full submersion at Hazelbank

A little closer to home this one, on the shores of Belfast Lough.This trip ended up being hugely fortunate for sea glass and we came away with quite a few interesting pieces! But the biggest and funniest memory I will ever have from this trip is Coppertop deciding to wade in to the water fully clothed, start going UNDER the water looking for sea glass, pretending to be a dog and getting me to throw a stick in the water for her to fetch (we got a few funny looks that day)! I do love my daughter’s imagination…luckily, I know her and had a change of clothes in the car as it wasn’t exactly the warmest of days. We always seem to time going to that beach when the tide is on the way in so we had to be careful not to get caught at the stone wall with nowhere to go! This was another trip that my mum was absent for as she was visiting my sister in England, so we got some special grandpa bonding time for Coppertop 🙂

Love the trees at Hazelbank overlooking the beach
Beautiful Hazelbank with Belfast in the distance

 Cushendun

The stunning view from our picnic on the sand dunes at Cushendun

We spent a warm summers day a lot further up the North Coast than usual but it was SO worth it. A gorgeous beach with soft sands but also patches of sea glass to be found along the shoreline! I didn’t have proper shoes with me that day as I had only thought about the soft sand so almost had the feet torn to shreds while finding all the teeny tiny beauties near the waves. We sat at the top of the beach having our picnic of fresh summer berries, hummus and veggie sticks before going for a long walk by the shore. It’s such a beautiful part of the world up there and I long to get there more often.

Coppertop playing in the waves at Cushendun

 

 

Holywood

The start of our lovely mama daughter day :)
The start of our lovely mama daughter day 🙂

What a beautiful day full of memories this was! I knew it was to be a lovely sunny day so we set off first thing Sunday morning to walk to the train station. A quick 8 minutes later we stepped off the train to the sound of the seagulls and the smell of salty sea air. It was low tide so Coppertop and I were able to walk the whole way along the beach, finding glass, spotting shells and interesting rocks. Jumping over river outlets and playing by the shoreline. We walked further round to the playground where new friends were made. After a while, we sat by the grass with our picnic lunch before heading to the beach again.

Coppertop dug herself a hole to ‘rest’ in, so we lay on the sand with some cake and ginger beer watching the blue sea (can you tell I was an Enid Blyton fan as a child? Well, still am of course).Bliss. After a run back to catch the train, we went to St George’s market in Belfast for some lovely fresh fruit and veggies. Then some soy hot chocolate before heading home with tired legs but happy hearts 🙂

Ginger beer ,sea glass hunting and chilling on the sand...perfect way to spend the day :)
Ginger beer ,sea glass hunting and chilling on the sand…perfect way to spend the day 🙂

Carnlough

The first part of the beach where we met our fellow beachcomber
The first part of the beach where we met our fellow beachcomber

An unexpected trip with a lovely chance encounter along the way! Our first time combing this beach though we’d been in the area many times before, it was a favourite spot for my dad as a child. The first part of the beach was filled with large white stones and no sea glass. But we got talking to a wonderful fellow beachcomber who showed us what side of the river we should be looking on. This lovely guy was looking for fossils and showed me these fascinating ‘star stones’ which are actually fossilised plant stems! He was generous enough to give me some of these and wouldn’t hear of a trade in return. He also told me of a local man there who used the sea glass he found to press into freshly plastered walls in the houses there which I thought was a wonderful idea! Something I’d certainly want to do if I ever get my own tiny/cob/earthship house. Found some wonderful pieces that day including a small almost perfect clear heart. Only blip was Coppertop taking a tumble and skinning her wee knees which she wasn’t too happy about funnily enough!

The 2nd part of the beach where we found lots of special pieces
The 2nd part of the beach where we found lots of special pieces