Spend a low tide rockpooling
A friend has invited you to do this with them.
When the tide drops, a rocky shore turns into a row of small aquariums holding crabs, starfish, anemones, blennies and shrimp. The lowest spring tides uncover the kelp beds, where the rummaging is at its best and the animals are ones you rarely see otherwise.
GentleFreeAn afternoonOutdoorsAlone or with othersUK
How to start
- Choose a shore from The Wildlife Trusts' list of rockpooling places around the UK.
- Look up the local tide table and plan to arrive as the tide is going out.
- Take a bucket, keep one animal in it at a time and put everything back where you found it.
Where to go
We opened this link on 7 October 2026 and found it to be what we say. Dates, places and prices are on the official page, where they stay up to date.
Plan this
Pick a day, or a month, and we will set out how to get ready, step by step, with a date and a reason for each. The hard part of a day out is the timing: the right season, tickets and getting there. The plan watches the calendar for you.
Read next
Six pairs of shoes and seven months on the Pacific Crest Trail took Nancy Zelick from Mexico to Canada
How a retired Intel researcher from Baker City, Oregon, walked the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada in about seven months: the snow, the gear, the food and why she thinks pace mattered more than youth. How to start multi-day hiking, or build towards a long trail if you already walk.
Stargazing for beginners: what to see, what to bring and where to look through a telescope
A beginner's guide to stargazing: letting your eyes adapt, the planets you can find without a telescope, why a red torch matters, the honest challenges of cloud and cold, and observatories and astronomy societies near you that will lend you a look through their telescopes.