Beachcombing

The top of the shore is where the sea casts up her random treasures, along with many less salubrious items (unfortunately plastics and other examples of marine litter are all too common and oil spots and tar balls can become a nuisance at times).

Some natural objects are frequently dismissed as man-made - the Mermaids Purse, a dried up, empty egg-capsule of a dogfish or ray, looks and feels like plastic and the spongy mass of whelk egg-cases could be a ball of expanded polystyrene or a synthetic foam.

Man has found some unusual uses for some of the sea's gifts - the cuttlefish "bone" is familiar to many people with budgies but is also used by jewellers to make moulds for casting small silver trinkets. (Strictly speaking the "bone" is an internal shell as the cuttlefish is a mollusc, though most of its close relatives - squid and octopus - have very reduced shell or none at all).

Warning : Proximity to the Army ranges means that live ammunition may occasionally be washed up on the beach. Any suspicious objects, particularly metal canisters, must not be touched and should be reported to the coastguard.