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Inverness, Nova Scotia(Canada)

We visited Inverness in March of 2019 after leaving Souris. Our drive to Inverness was over hills and around curves with driving, gusty winds that pushed around our Jeep rental. This might have discouraged other travelers, but for us it meant that the storm-driven surf would expose new sea glass!

That evening we found a bed and breakfast called Dusky Diamonds, located on Beach Road 1 in Inverness which is also the route to use to reach the glass beach. And what a beach! It stretched for more than a mile with all of the ingredients we look for in sea glass hunting, and did not disappoint. We immediately started to find many mostly green and white pieces of the type of glass every sea glass artisan craves - well rounded, with that "frosted" look. The glass was plentiful and, almost without exception, of excellent quality in both its shape and texture.

Inverness is not a big place, and we were in the off-season in cold, blustery weather, so there were few people on the beach (or in the town for that matter). The town is home to a “bucket list” golf course, and we were told by the natives that the employees start to show up on the first of May, with the season officially opening on May 15 (you can use this feature to lure a golfer to go with you).  The town had a single restaurant and a small pizza and sandwich shop that was open in the off-season, along with a bank, grocery and drug store.  As in most places well off the beaten path, the natives were friendly and helpful.

Drive down Beach Road 1 to the parking area (you could walk down a boardwalk to the beach from the Dusky Diamonds in nicer weather). We found large quantities of glass by going to the right facing the water, in the stretch next to the golf course, where the shingle was the right size. This is old glass, with many medium-sized green and white pieces and occasional blues.  We found only a few browns, likely because they were so hard to distinguish from the many brown pebbles.  The beach stretched on for more than a mile, and we never stopped picking up glass the entire way along the shoreline.  Each successive tide uncovered more glass along the same stretch in these stormy conditions.

After an excellent day hunting, we attended mass at a large church in Inverness built on 1904.  The age of the town provides one clue as to the origin of the large quantity of old glass. The next day, we found another clue. The combination of wind, tide and weather had shifted during the night, driving in floating ice floes.  Some of these were larger than a car and with the wave action, they pushed the sand into mounds and gouged out craters, mixing the sand and shingle. This, along with good storm activity, a large supply of old glass, and a coarse sand with shingle beach, meant that the stars were aligned for our visit. We had another great hunting day going over the same stretch of beach, even though the ice covered much of the shoreline, and I know there was a ton of glass under that ice.  At mid-day with the weather turning even colder and testing our Texas foul-weather gear, we left, but had enough high quality sea glass to keep me going until my next trip.

Due to the large quantity of high-quality sea glass, I have made Inverness my fourth-rated sea glass beach behind Seaham, Vieques and Bimini. It matches Seaham in quantity but not in the variety sizes and colors. These four locations are a cut above others I have visited, making the list of places to which I would return. I will probably not be back at Inverness again during the off-season, only because from my home base here at Surfside Beach, Texas, Seaham is just as accessible and Bimini and Vieques are more so.  But if you live in the northeast, you can reach Inverness by car and it's well worth the trip.

Please come to one of the venues and we can trade information on our glass hunting trips!

Other beaches I have visited:
1. Seaham Beach, Seaham, England, U.K
2. Vieques Island, Vieques, Puerto Rico, USA
3. North Bimini, Bahamas
4. Inverness, Nova Scotia, Canada
5. McCurdy Point, Port Townsend, Washington, USA
6. Texas Gulf Coast
7. Maine Coast (USA)
8. Souris, Prince Edward Island, Canada
 
nancyb@sanddollarseaglass.com

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