I was on the south coast of the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales last week, and had the pleasure of doing some beachcombing near Criccieth. The tide was extremely low (lowest I’ve seen it) giving great conditions for searching for sea glass. The beach is mercifully pretty much clear of plastics, and aside from tumbled bricks and pottery, is sand and shingle. Finding tumbled glass shards in amongst pebbles and slate chippings is tricky, but so rewarding. Here’s an arty shot of the two pieces I found before it started getting too dark to search…

What’s sea glass?

For the not so sure, I’m not actually looking for glass from the sea (though that does exist). What I’m looking for is rubbish – shards of broken glass that have been naturally sand tumbled, giving a wonderful pitted, frosted appearance with the translucency still present.

And as I turned round to come back, this is what was behind me. Snowdon is snowcapped to the left, and became gloriously lit by the setting sun – the timing was pure serendipity! Quite an end to my treasure hunt.

Now all that’s left to do is to come up with a creative use for the bits of glass I’ve found. I have a few more from a week’s beachcombing at Christmas.