"Traditionally the oarfish was known to many as the Herring King, since it was thought to guide the fickle herring shoals through the waves and towards those hungry and waiting along the coast." From the latest North Sea dispatches: northseanexus.substack.com/p/ghost-nets...

Chowder for breakfast, and chowder for dinner, and chowder for supper, till you began to look for fish-bones coming through your clothes.

It's the end of the month again, and time for the latest North Sea dispatches from me. This round takes in the rare, the left-behind and the enduring. All testament to just how much the North Sea still has to give.

Built in 1942 as Roughs Tower, this former Maunsell Sea Fort stands in the Thames Estuary about 7 miles off the Essex coast. Occupied by Roy Bates in 1967 and proclaimed the Principality of Sealand, it remains one of the world's best-known micronations, complete with its own flag, coins and stamps.

🧵In the months following the liberation of the Netherlands, around 235 Dutch children arrived in Doncaster as part of a larger programme that brought thousands to Britain to recover from the effects of the devastating "Hunger Winter." They spent approximately two months at Warmsworth

From a windswept island chapel battered by the North Sea to a quiet Welsh farmhouse that shaped the future of a language, tonight Hidden Treasures of the National Trust travels to two remote sites whose powerful stories have inspired centuries of pilgrims. 9pm BBC Two and on BBC iPlayer.

A restored Leudo — traditional sailboat of the Tigullio Gulf in Liguria. Formerly used to transport wine & cheese along the Riviera. The nearby Republic of Genoa prohibited ports along this part of the coast, and so the Leudo was designed to enter the water directly from the beach. #anothersea

“Three and a half centuries after the Dutch stormed the Medway, Niels Wennemars has claimed a bounty to rival the English navy’s flagship by winning the annual cheese rolling race in Gloucestershire.”

A new piece from me for this Bank Holiday Monday — on Bede, tides and watching the sea

Struggling to decide which seabird to share for #SuperSeabirdSunday? Why not consolidate all your seabirds into one handy 1930s-style rail poster? xx

During migration, birds sometimes use ships to rest on and hitch a ride when the opportunity arises. Here is a female Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) on board the ‘Plancius’ in the North Sea heading north #redstart #birds

Aerial view of the vast tidal sands and harbour channel at Wells-next-the-Sea on the north Norfolk coast. The constantly shifting channels and sandbanks here are shaped by powerful North Sea tides, while the saltmarshes beyond provide important habitat for thousands of seabirds and migrating waders.

Do you know of an inland or coastal Common Gull colony? Any abundance or productivity data on this under-monitored gull would be incredibly valuable for the @smp-seabirds.bsky.social #seabirds #ornithology #ScottishBirds

We're delighted that the public contribution system for our digital map launched today! Have you got photos, postcards, or video showing how the coast has changed since 1925? Then we'd love you to add your memories to the map to help plot how our coastline is changing cim.mola.org.uk/map/contribute

In 'The Artist, His wife and the Writer Otto Benzon,' (1893) Peder Krøyer (in the blue smock) depicts breakfast at his house in Skagen where he helped found an artists' colony on the most northern peninsular in Denmark.

A shortish walk to the most northerly point on Colonsay and on the return leg this view opened up. The kind of view I wasn’t really expecting on this magical wee island although it needed a full 200mm and dx sensor crop to reach it. #fsprintmonday #sharemondays2026 #photography #photographers

Wildflower sketches from Teesmouth (North Gare) last week - lots of lovely Purple Milk Vetch, and a small clump of tiny, bright blue Early Forget-me-nots in the dunes. Small and hairy or small and shiny seem to be the chosen strategies for coastal plants. (NE England) #wildflowers #tinyplants

What a lovely and evocative read

Aerial view of the rapidly eroding Suffolk coast at Covehithe, looking north along one of the most vulnerable stretches of shoreline in eastern England. The dramatic cliffs here are disappearing at an average rate of around 4–5 metres per year. #Covethithe #SuffolkCoast #aerial

To Noroway, to Noroway, To Noroway o’er the faem; The king’s daughter o’ Noroway, ’Tis thou maun bring her hame… The ballad “Sir Patrick Spens” is probably based on the 1290 mission to Norway to fetch the 7-year-old princess Margaret, heir to the Scottish crown #Norway #Nasjonaldagen #poetry 🇳🇴🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Latest piece from me — on rumours and imaginings of the bottom of the sea

🧵I believe the Saltburn-by-the-Sea Cliff Tramway is still closed while it awaits the installation of two new replacement carriages. In 1884 the tramway replaced a somewhat precarious cliff "Vertical Hoist System" The water balanced funicular rises one hundred and twenty feet at

An update on the wandering walrus...

#OTD in 1945. Men from British 1 Airborne Division are welcomed into Oslo by Norwegian civilians. #WW2 #HISTORY

After three years of work, The Bigger Picture: Connected Worlds of Bruges 900–1550 has opened at BRUSK in Bruges. A short 🧵

The tramline, which spans 67 km along Belgium's coastline, takes in beach towns, art and panoramic North Sea views.

#OTD in 1068, Matilda of Flanders was crowned Queen of England at Westminister Abbey. Married to William the Conqueror, she was the first on a list of women from the Low Countries who would become Queen of England.

On this day in 1945, allied troops entered the city of Utrecht via Biltstraat, bringing five long years of Nazi occupation to an end. A short piece I wrote on this day last year about the liberation of the city I now call home:

aaand we have movement North. The first bird to begin migration left the Friesian coast at 9am on Tuesday, passing directly over Aberdeen at 10pm before touching down in the Orkneys in the early hours of the morning. Headwinds potentially stopping it from making the leap to Iceland in one go?

From the Archive – Essay: Seaside Fashion and Bathing Suits – In Whitby along the North Sea Coast: 1880s to 1914. www.ikfoundation.org/itextilis/se...

Frank Meadow Sutcliffe photograph of the lower harbour at Whitby. The small boat to the left 195 PZ was part of the Penzance fishing fleet which visited the town until around the First World War. Known as Cornish Luggers they are often depicted on pieces of Newlyn copper.

Today, the Dutch celebrate Liberation Day. In our short blog post the unique story of the liberation of the inhabitants of the Wieringermeerpolder in April 1945:

This #MapMonday, explore this 1730 map of the Forth 🌊 Made by John Adair, the map shows the "River and Frith [sic] of Forth" - perfect for #StarWarsDay! #MayTheForthBeWithYou Explore the map > maps.nls.uk/view/543

SHEPPEY [shep•i], sheep-island, sb. The inhabitants of the isle … call themselves 'sons of Sheppey' and speak of crossing the Swale … as 'going into England;' whilst those who live in the marshes call the higher parts of Sheppey, the Island

Blakeney Channel at Morston Creek, gateway to North Norfolk’s seal trips. Boats leave Morston Quay on the tide, heading out to Blakeney Point, home to England’s largest grey seal colony. Ever-shifting sands and creeks shaped by tide and silt. #NorthNorfolk #aerial #Blakeney

Sometimes strange things get washed up on these shores. This seemed to be a long way from home. From 2018. Arrow squid?

Hallig Habel, a lonely farm on the North Sea. Schleswig-Holstein, Germany | Hans Joachim Kürtz

Another month flies by and it's time for the latest round of North Sea dispatches, this time featuring a walrus, flying squid and a misbehaving lighthouse

Plume of the wildfire about to land in Norwich, UK.

🧵Apparently today is World Noise Awareness Day, So what could I post? An original lighthouse at Whitby, built in 1858 by Trinity House, was later replaced by something far more memorable, the fog signal known locally as the “Hawsker Bull.” Installed in 1903, the system used two

Another month flies by and it's time for the latest round of North Sea dispatches, this time featuring a walrus, flying squid and a misbehaving lighthouse

Relief and joy were palpable after rescue workers tugged and guided a humpback whale stranded off Germany's Baltic coast into a floating tank within a barge that will later be pulled out to the North Sea. (

Research from Early Medieval England and its Neighbours in the news again! A previously lost copy of Cæmon's hymn in Old English, from 9C Italy, has been rediscovered in Rome. Well done Elisabetta Magnanti & Mark Faulkner of @tcddublin.bsky.social !!! www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...

Here is our glorious poster !

It’s that eccentric time of year again in West Flanders…!

Excellent new article on literary connections across the North Sea by @mlangerer.bsky.social out now in open access #Medievalsky #EarlyMedieval, doi.org/10.1017/ean....

And a reminder that I'm collecting all North Sea Friday Folk and their stories in one place here as we go along 👇

North Sea Friday Folk #10 — lives shaped by the shallow sea on our doorstep Today’s the turn of Scottish novelist Neil Gunn (1891-1973), son of the Caithness coast, his father a herring-boat captain working out of Dunbeath 1/3 📷Gunn in 1949 (Estate of Lida Moser / National Galleries of Scotland)