Making Medieval Mermaid Sandcastles on the Beach

You may think you know all about mermaids, but do you? We explored these, and other dangers of the deep in a special SEND family friendly day out on Sunday 23 July 2023 from 10am to 12.30 pm. We met at sunny but windy Ramsgate Main Sands behind the Wetherspoon’s Victorian Pavilion to explore the beach, create art, make stories and have fun! There was a lifeguard station expecting us – and an ice-cream stall nearby. At the ready with buckets and spades – we began! We used a stick to make an outline of our mermaid, then dug the sand around her to build up her shape, added loads of shells and broken blue china for her tail and found seaweed for her hair. We built a sandcastle shark too! We finished at 12.30 and then we had fun unmaking the sandcastles and some of us remained on the beach to enjoy a picnic. It was brilliant fun: ‘They couldn’t wait to start’ ‘Lovely morning – we really enjoyed it.’ ‘I didn’t know you could make mermaid sandcastles.’ Medieval mermaids (sirens) enchanted sailors by their music and sweet singing to lull them to sleep so they would be shipwrecked. Mermaids were considered mean and deceitful because they seemed so lovely but wanted to rob or drown people. Sometimes mermaids were drawn with fishtails and sometimes with wings. The mermaid’s opposite was the desert-living, hot-tempered Ass-centaur. With spectacular views of the White Cliffs, we enjoyed a picnic on the beach and chatted and relaxed. People were having so much fun they didn’t want to leave. The walk down to the beach, called Folkestone Warren is on steep paths, which can be slippery when wet, with large steps at the bottom, then across a stony beach (with some large boulders). The beach was quite slippery with seaweed, and although we went quite slowly, we still probably walked a couple of miles. The fossils are in a bank of soft sticky clay so old clothes and wellies were essential. It wasn’t very sunny, but the rain held off, so we didn’t need waterproofs. But we did need a huge bag for the fossils! We met at 10 am on the grass next to the children’s play area, on Wear Bay Road, adjacent to the bowling green at East Cliff Sports. We walked down the steep cliff path with giant steps – thinking that every step was taking us back a million years until we reached the bottom of the cliff where the fossils are found.