Beach Locations
A little snapshot of the stunning locations along the Antrim Coast here in Northern Ireland where all our treasures are found! Each piece of Copper Rainbow jewellery is sent to you with a map card showing you which beach location your treasure was found on. Read on to see where your piece of the Northern Irish Coast was discovered...
Glenarm beach holds a very special place in my heart! In fact, it is the beach pictured on all my business media due to it being the very first beach we ever collected sea glass from. We had a lovely meal up at the castle, a walk around the walled gardens, time on the beach finding lots of special treasures on the sand followed by a walk around the forest watching the red squirrels and smelling the honeysuckle in the hedgerows. It is the place that inspired my love of nature the most, hence 'Where the forest meets the sea...' each trip feels very special and we always come away with plenty of jewels from the shore to remember it by! Coppertop and I even had the pleasure of taking the BBC along on one of our sea glass hunting trips for a local nature show with Barra Best (Barra's Wild Days Out available on BBC iPlayer).
Drains Bay is a gorgeous beach with plenty of pebbles to search through plus lots of soft sand for the kids to play on! My most memorable trip to Drains Bay a few years ago involved my dad and I getting caught in a huge rainstorm while my mum and Coppertop (sensibly) sat in the car. We may have been drenched, but we ended up with some incredible rare glass and bottle stoppers that day. Plus, who doesn't love some dramatic thunder while beachcombing?!
Carnlough beach has probably been our favourite spot the past few years due to friends who live there so we have a wonderful excuse to spend many hours scouring the shoreline while the kids all go swimming. I will never tire of that view , the vibrant green hills meeting the blue and white of the crashing waves makes me feel more alive every time I see it.
Larne beach was one of the first beaches we collected from regularly and the first place we ever found pink sea glass! It helps that there is an excellent coffee shop overlooking the water to grab a decaf hazelnut oat milk mocha after our beach adventures. You might even be lucky enough to spot the seals or dolphins swim past...
Cushendall beach is a little further up the coast than our usual locations but it is always worth the trip! With the stunning backdrop of Lurig mountain (Lurigeadan) behind it and a beach full of many types of quartz and pebbles as well as sea glass, it's a wonderful place to spend the day. Quite often you can spot rabbits hopping around the golf course towards the end of the beach and if you're REALLY lucky, you might find a sea glass marble or two as that was always where we found the most!
Whitehead and those iconic houses...whether it's the little beach on the prom or the longer scenic walk along Blackhead Path towards the lighthouse, we've always loved going for picnics and beach walks in this local coastal town with some amazing coffee shops, gift shops and more! Quitye often we would find seals playing in the water just before the lighthouse and take our binoculars to watch the peregrine falcon nest on the cliffs...
Carrickfergus Castle is one of the most famous Northern Irish destinations and we're lucky enough to have it practically on our doorstep! For more than 800 years this Norman castle has been part of the landscape here and each time we find glass at the foot of its stone walls, I wonder if it was previously used somehow inside those castle gates. That's the magic of sea glass, each frosted beauty has a history waiting to be discovered and a story waiting to be told...