Complete Guide to Seaham Sea Glass Beach

Have you ever dreamed of discovering buried treasure? You can find the best sea glass in Great Britain in Seaham – a quaint English harbour town on the Durham Heritage Coast. It’s well worth a visit!

Finding beautiful Seaham sea glass is as easy as waiting for the tide to turn on the world-famous Seaham Beach, which has a strong reputation among sea glass collectors.

These cognoscenti flock to this rejuvenated former mining and industrial town in the Northeast of England to explore the beautiful beaches at Seaham. The goal? Searching for Seaham Beach sea glass and hoping to find stunning coloured glass treasures!

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Why Seaham Sea Glass?

Growing up on a small island, I spent a long time in the fresh air, beach-combing for sea glass gems tumbled and left behind on the local beaches by the rough sea.

After moving to Yorkshire in Northern England, I searched for where to find sea glass near me and realised I could visit the best beach with glass in England – Seaham Beach!

Where is Seaham England?

Seaham is a coastal town in County Durham, England. Located on the amazing Durham Coast, it is 6 miles south of Sunderland and 13 miles east of the historic city of Durham. 

What is Sea Glass? 

Sea Glass (or beach glass) is the name given to glass dumped into the world’s seas and oceans. Over time, the sea tumbles and shapes the glass before washing up onto the shore. It’s the ultimate recycled glass!

Where does Sea Glass come from?

Sea Glass washes ashore on beaches all around the world. However, the quantity and colour variations of sea glass on the glass pebble beach at Seaham make it so popular with visiting sea glass collectors.  

Some other good beaches for seaglass in the UK include Marazion Beach in Cornwall and Lulworth Cove in Dorset, near Durdle Door.

Seaham Sea Glass History

Seaham was once home to the largest glass bottle works in Britain. The Londonderry Bottleworks operated until the early 1920s, producing up to 20 million hand-blown glass bottles a year at its peak. Made in different colours and designs, glass bottles from Seaham were shipped worldwide. These included bottles made for drinks, medicines, beautiful perfume bottles, and bottle stoppers in fantastic colours.

However, waste glass (or slag glass) was dumped straight into the North Sea as part of manufacturing. That’s what makes Seaham such a treasure trove for sea glass collectors today. Twice a day, on every new tide, the beautiful beaches at Seaham are sprinkled with shiny new glass gems that have been tumbled, smoothed, and speckled by the North Sea for decades.  

What is Seaham sea glass like? 

Every sea glass pebble is a unique shape and colour, with individual markings. At Seaham, you’ll discover many different colours and types of sea glass, including codd marbles, used as a seal for carbonated drinks. There’s also safety glass with wire reinforcements still running through it, bottlenecks, and sea pottery! 

The most common types of glass found in Seaham are clear glass and green sea glass – the most popular glass produced by the Londonderry bottle works. If you’re lucky, you might find yellow, red, blue, aqua – even multi-coloured pebbles or milk glass in pastel shades of blues, yellows, and green. It all depends on what the tide washes in! 

Fun fact: If you find black glass, you might want to do a happy dance, as you will have found some of the oldest glass produced by the Seaham bottle works!

Where is the best place to find Seaham sea glass?

Seaham has several beaches, with varying quantities of sea glass on the beach; however, the most popular beach for finding Seaham Sea Glass is Seaham Beach (known as Seaham Hall Beach until 2013). Seaham Beach is also known locally as North Beach or Vane Tempest.  

How to find Seaham sea glass

You can spot Seaham sea glass at any time during low tide; however, some hunters choose to follow the sea out a few hours after high tide. With every wave, new sea glass is washed onto the beach and snatched back, never to be seen again. 

The beaches at Seaham are sand and shingle, which can make sea glass tricky to spot. What you will probably see is sea glass hunters using one of two techniques:

• “The stooped walk” – walking along slightly bent over, to scan the beach for sea glass on the surface
• “The diggers and rock turners” – using a small spade or stick to poke beneath the surface for buried Seaham sea glass

Don’t forget that the beach changes with every tide – especially after a big storm!

What can you do with sea glass?

Here are a few ideas of what to do with beach glass:

• Display the sea glass in pretty glass bottles or bowls
• Create stunning sea glass jewellery
• Make a picture from the sea glass

Of course, if you’re lucky enough to find a large piece of red sea glass, you could also sell it! Red is the rarest, most sought-after sea glass colour! 

A Responsible Tourism Note – Sea Glass Collecting

Currently, there are no restrictions on how much sea glass you collect from the beach at Seaham, unlike many other famous sea glass beaches worldwide. Some even ban any beach glass collecting at all!

While it’s lovely to take a small amount of beautiful Seaham sea glass home to enjoy, leaving some behind for others to discover is thoughtful. 

Visiting Seaham – The Essentials

How to get to Seaham

The two nearest cities to Seaham are Sunderland (6 miles to the north) and the UNESCO World Heritage city of Durham, 13 miles to the west. Take the 154 bus from Durham or the 159 from Sunderland.

Seaham is just 28 mins from Newcastle by train (Newcastle is on the mainline route from London to Edinburgh via York). Trains run every half hour.

Plan your trip to Seaham by public transport by train with Trainline or Omio 

Related post: Train Travel in the UK – A Complete Guide

Alternatively, set your satnav for SR7 7AF to reach Seaham Hall Beach Car Park.

When to visit Seaham

• Springtime and Summer are the best times to see wildflowers in and around the town and on the cliffs at Nose’s Point.
• The best time for sea glass hunting is just after high tide, as the retreating sea reveals any new sea glass it has brought in. Check the tide tables for Seaham here. 

Where to stay in Seaham

📍 The Seaton Lane Inn: This friendly hotel is five minutes away from the coast, offers free on-site parking, and is just over 10 miles from Durham city centre.

All rooms offer free Wi-Fi, a private shower room, a plasma TV and very comfortable king-size or super king-size beds, plus hairdryers and tea/coffee-making facilities.

The restaurant serves fresh market vegetables or homemade chunky chips with all meals, with fresh produce sourced from local farm butchers and fish suppliers. The traditional Sunday lunch is particularly good.

➡️ Check availability at the Seaton Lane Inn here.

Where to eat in Seaham 

Clean Bean Restaurant and Bar: This is a great find for delicious food and fantastic service. Try their breakfast on the beach box or luscious burgers, and the vegan Sunday nut roast is award-winning! There’s a cute dog-friendly “secret garden” too!

Location: 22 North Terrace, Seaham SR7 7EU

5 Things to Pack for Your Trip to Seaham

• A small container for your sea glass treasures (please, no single-use plastic baggies!)
• Sturdy shoes for walking on the beach and up/down the steps to the beaches, which can be slippery
• A windproof jacket – this is Britain’s North coast, and the weather can be very changeable, even in the summer
• A reusable water bottle
• Your camera/phone!

What to see in Seaham Town – Beyond the Beach

Eleven O One “Tommy”

A must-see above the beach is “Tommy” – a magnificent and massive 1.2-tonne steel sculpture of a First World War soldier sitting upon an ammunition box.

Positioned to look over the town’s beautifully maintained war memorial, this 9ft 5in tall sculpture by East Durham artist Ray Lonsdale depicts the emotions of a soldier (a Tommy) in the first minute of the peace in 1918.

East Durham Lifeboat and Heritage Centre

This lovely little museum shares the history of the RNLI on this challenging coastline. Visit the fully restored “George Elmy” lifeboat, which capsized in heavy seas on November 17th, 1962, with the tragic loss of all but one life. Discover how the lifeboat was rescued and brought back to Seaham after being spotted for sale on eBay!

Location: Seaham Harbour Marina. Tel: +44 191 581 8904. Check opening hours here 

Seaham Lighthouse

Seaham Harbour is protected from storms by two long breakwaters, with the town’s lighthouse being built in 1905, right at the end of the north breakwater. The 10-metre-high lighthouse has a cylindrical metal tower painted alternating black and white.

A real favourite with photographers, Seaham lighthouse is spectacular to see when high winds cause waves to crash over it.

Safety Note: When built, the breakwaters in Seaham had railings – these were removed years ago, so take care if you plan to walk along them!

Blast Beach

Blast Beach is blooming again today, thanks to a massive clean-up partnership involving the National Trust. If you’re up for a scramble down to (and back from) the beach, we found sea glass here too.

Blast Beach was once the infamous home of the biggest coal mine in Europe, with some of the worst coastline pollution in the world. The natural beach lay buried beneath the two and a half million tonnes of toxic waste from Dawdon colliery that was dumped here annually. It was an ecological disaster for wildlife and a real no-go zone for human visitors. 

Fun fact: Eagle-eyed movie fans will spot that part of Blast Beach was used in the opening sequence of the Alien 3 movie!

The car park nearest Nose’s Point has plenty of spaces and is free. Satnav SR7 7PS.

Places to Visit Nearby

• Durham City – UNESCO World Heritage Site
• Surprising Knaresborough – 19 Best Things to Do and See
• The Historic Royal Turkish Baths in Harrogate
• The Most Beautiful Towns in Yorkshire

Pin For Later – Treasure Hunting at Seaham Sea Glass Beach