Go pebble spotting

Rock on this summer – and use these tips for our summer Scavenger Hunt.

What you need

● A grown-up

● A stone ID guide

● Camera

● Pencils and paper

How does it work?

With many people choosing to holiday in the UK this year, pebble spotting could become a craze right across the country. The activity was very popular in the 1950s, when people flocked to the UK’S beaches each summer. Depending on where you go, you will find different types of pebble. Perhaps you’ll even be lucky enough to find the ultimate treasure: rhomb porphyry, a rare and beautiful rock with diamond-shaped crystals. Just take a good ID guide, either one found online or in a book, like The Pebble Spotter’s Guide by Clive Mitchell.

3 Never take the pebbles home. Instead, immerse yourself in a day of natural magic then leave the beach exactly as you found it.

1 Head outside with a grown-up – ideally to a beach, but you can find stones almost anywhere. Choose some interesting pebbles to look at.

2 Use a guide to learn about your pebbles. Take a photo and enter it into our Scavenger Hunt competition (see page 35) or sketch them.