Things to do in Shetland with children – rock pooling

The tide was low, spring equinox and new moon shifting the sea to reveal more of the beach than usual. Tips of kelp forests, normally hidden below the surface, glowed in the late afternoon sun. Golden, they shimmered as they moved gently with the waves.

A seal with skin so pale it appeared almost white against the dark water swam past, watching our progress as we scrambled over slippery rocks.

We found a large flat rock to set down our buckets and began exploring. This is one of my favourite places to take the bairns rock pooling.

Over the years we have found hundreds of starfish in shades of red, orange and purple; delicate brittle stars floating through the water like living seaweed; baby butterfish hidden under rocks and once, several small turbot, their flat bodies so camouflaged against the grains of sand that we could hardly see them.

Within a few minutes Rohan had found a hermit crab, then another and another. It seemed every shell we found was home to one, the smallest l just a few milometers long while the larger ones inhabited barnacle encrusted dog whelk shells.

Whenever we are on the beach looking for shells we keep aside a few that look like particularly good hermit crab homes. Strong whole shells of various sizes and of course some chosen for their colours and patterns.

We placed a crab into the bucket and gave it several shells to choose from. For a moment it was still, then slowly antennae emerged, followed by claws and red and white striped legs.

It walked around, exploring each shell in turn until one caught its attention. A painted topshell whose pink colour was wearing away in places exposing a mother of pearl shine. We watched with bated breath as it made the switch.

It was a quick and graceful move, soft body only visible for a second before disappearing safely into the new shell.

The kids approved of the choice, telling the crab it had now had the prettiest shell. It may have been beautiful, but the fit clearly wasn’t right as a few minutes later the bright shell lay discarded, its occupant returned to their original home.

A few crabs we found were in cracked or broken shells. The bairns were worried this would make it more likely they would get eaten so we transferred them to the hospital bucket.

There we placed the best shells we could find. To our relief everyone that went to hospital found a new shell.

Approaching darkness and the incoming tide make me realise how long we had been here. It was time to go home.

We carefully placed the crabs back where we found them, leaving the old shells close to their original inhabitants in case they had a change of heart.