When you think of sandy beaches, blue skies and waves softly lapping the shore, the Lincolnshire coastline doesn’t usually spring to mind. Leave behind the tourist trail though, and you’ll find hidden dunes, a menagerie of coastal wildlife and treasures discarded by the sea.

Theddlethorpe Beach, seemingly infinite in the early morning haze of sunshine on the day we visited, is flanked by ancient dunes which began forming in the thirteenth century. We explored their nooks and hideaways for a short while before making our quarter of a mile journey across the sands, stopping once we reached the waves to splash with Bella, the dog. We sipped our lemon and ginger tea from a flask and had the vast expanse to ourselves; a refuge from the real world.

Another hour sped past and we meandered some more, fascinated by the debris left behind by the tides: crab’s claws, starfish, razor shells, seaweed and even a ship’s mast. The sunlight glistened on the droplets left behind in the rivets of sand. Sea birds sang with delight and flew swiftly across the haze of blue on the horizon. We left feeling rejuvenated and ready for whatever the rest of the week had to throw at us, content in the knowledge that we’d spent so little but gained so much pleasure from our morning.

Image by Eleanor Holmes