Dear Mummy, a couple of weekends ago we visited Hayling Island on the South Coast.
Hayling Island is a true island, completely surrounded by sea. It is shaped like an inverted T and is about 4 miles long and wide. A road bridge connects its northern end to the mainland of England at Langstone, Hampshire.
My grandparents live on the south of the island by the sea and we often enjoy walks on the nearest stony beach and love having lunch in the little pubs on the island.
On this occasion we visited The Ferryboat Inn on the south-west tip of Hayling Island. We like this pub as it offers great food and even better views over Langstone Habour and the Solent. While I was waiting for my food I dragged my folks down onto the windy Sinah beach. The tide was out so I had a good stretch of sand to play on. We saw the largest mountain of shells on one of the sandbanks, which I had to scale up with my daddy.
Meanwhile my mummy was quite happy picking up beautiful and unbroken shells for me. The weather was blustery and rain was coming across from Portsmouth so we were only on the beach for 20 minutes but it was enough to get some fresh air and keep me entertained.
We rushed back into the Ferryboat Inn just before the heavens opened and enjoyed some warm hearty food. I had lovely gammon, egg and chips, while my folks enjoyed soup with a crusty roll and a lovely sunday roast.
We’d definitely recommend this area as a destination to visit in Hampshire. It’s only a hop, skip and a jump from Historic Portsmouth too and Hayling Island is lovely for a day trip.
We made a treasure box with the shells we found on the beach. I love Jake and the Pirates on the Disney Channel, so inspired by the show we made a treasure chest together.
My mummy purchased a cardboard treasure chest from HobbyCraft at £1.99, we used some PVA glue and glue spreaders to stick my shells onto the box. I also embellished it further using gold glitter paint and beads and added some gold plastic coins inside for my pirate treasure!
So what do you think? Next time you visit a beach will you find some treasure? Using items you find along the way and making a keepsake is a great way to capture a moment at the seaside and a lovely craft activity for kids.
Love Bella x
dearmummyblog.com 
Sounds like you had a great time. I love collecting shells when I go to the beach and I’m 27!
I love a good day at the beach come rain or shine and that chocolate cake looks divine!! Good haul too – some nice treasure there!
Oh my! How many shells? I so want to take the kids to Hayling Island now! 🙂
oh how lovely, I bet it is so peaceful, a real secluded day at the beach.
Hello Bella! It’s Olivia here. You look like you an amazing day with your mummy and daddy. I am intrigued with mountain of shells, I wish to see something like that one day, they are definitely a good treasure. 🙂 xx
…the mountain of shells were amazing!! Thanks for popping over Olivia xx
I love trips to the beach especially this time of year. Just love the emptiness and bracing wind. Love your seaside treasures especially those coins 😉
What an amazing sounding place, and all those shells! Wowee! Love your treasure chests, what a lovely way of extending the fun back home xx
Great treasure hunting! We used to go to Hayling Island when I was little. #letkidsbekids
I have never been to Hayling Island but it looks as though you all had fun and we love finding treasure on the beach too
That is a fantastic mountain of shells! My girls would be in heaven with those! Love the treasure chest you made too.
Thanks for sharing with #LetKidsBeKids
What a lovely trip. I love collecting shells too. What a great idea to make a treasure chest.
Considering how many times I’ve been to Portsmouth and around that area, I’ve never been to Hayling Island, looks like I need to remedy that for the shells alone! #WTWW
The island itself looks lovely but I’m definitely pinching your beach treasure chest idea. Thank you.
Amazing, I love the treasure chest and the island sounds fab. I love your blog as I’m still relatively new to Hampshire and you always have suggestions for great days out.xx #whatevertheweather
Thanks Wendy! 🙂
Wow, what a gorgeous day! I’m so jealous of your shells and your pictures are beautiful! #LetKidsBeKids
Mummy used to live near Portsmouth years ago, and loves this area. Your photos are lovely – I hope we get to visit one day. Kaz x
Portsmouth and Hayling Island are great places to visit 🙂 Lots of history!
Awww love the treasure, that is such an awesome idea. Looks like you had a great time x
What a great idea to use the shells to make a treasure chest. Looks like you had fab day with some yummy food #countrykids
I come home with my pockets stuffed with shells and sea glass. I keep ours in jars on the window sills. I like your idea of making a treasure box. Lovely way to enjoy them. #CountryKids
We didn’t visit Hayling Island enough when we lived in Hampshire. That gammon, egg and chips is making my mouth water! What a great idea to make a treasure chest with your shells – I love that. We picked up some fab shells in Cornwall yesterday that would make great decorations for a treasure chest. I need to find out local HobbyCraft! #countrykids
What a beautiful place to visit, there’s such wonderful views and scenery there! It’s great that you got to explore together as a family and climb to the top of that shell mountain, how many shells did you manage to gather for your treasure. That treasure chest looks fab, I might use that idea here on the farm! Thanks for linking up with me on #CountryKids.
It sounds like such a beautiful place to visit. My son loves Jake to, that craft idea sounds like such fun. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Such stunning photos. I love the details in the shell pictures. What a brilliant idea to make a treasure box from the collections. The food looks so delicious too, especially the dessert! Thank you so much for sharing with #whatevertheweather xx
I can remember visiting that beach, it was so windy! The shells are brilliant in your photos, must have been so great and make the beach really different.
What gorgeous shells – and beautiful photos. I love the idea of the treasure chest too! #countrykids
Love your photos! And the place is super stunning and I am so in love with the bluest water! #countrykids
Love the decorated shell treasure chest boxes! Shells are definitely a favourite of mine to collect too, my two littles aren’t interested in collecting as much as throwing them into the sea, so I fill my pockets up and let them play with them at home. They are lovely on frames with beach’y’ photos too. The mountain of shells you had to scale looks amazing and lots of fun. I’m jealous of your yummy lunch, well mainly the dessert, it is mouth watering! You’re very lucky to have family living there and be able to visit and play at the beach too, we can’t wait until our next beach trip! Thanks so much for linking up to #Whatevertheweather 🙂 x