Chuffin Puffins – Sand Sculpture Workshops at the Great Yorkshire Show

Who doesn’t love a country show? With the delicious food, demonstrations of agricultural skills and dogs, horses and other livestock on show and in competition; it’s a great chance for people to meet and catch up and revel in all things countryside.

So, it was a bit of a surprise to be asked by East Ridings Council to come along to the Welcome to Yorkshire stand at the Great Yorkshire Show and run some sand sculpture workshops. They had brought the beach all the way to the countryside to promote Bridlington’s beautiful cliffs and coastline and as well as deckchairs and sticks of rock they wanted some beach art to draw in visitors young and old. 

The sand carving and family workshops were to highlight puffins, iconic to the British and Yorkshire coast. Sadly, these lovely birds are in decline and the RSPB have launched a campaign for the public to help monitor and track what they are eating. Traditionally they eat sand eels but this food source may be becoming more scarce. If you already have photos of puffins feeding, or you fancy getting your camera out and taking some photos this summer – you can send those to the RSPB or put them up on social media with the hashtags #Puffarazzi and #ProjectPuffinUK and when and where you took the photo. A great place to spot and photograph puffins is RSPB Bempton Cliffs near Bridlington. 

It’s a long day at the Great Yorkshire Show and Rich had to bring everything for the sand art in before the show opened at 7.30am (those farmers like to get started early making their sand sculptures), he had Tess to help him on the first day and then on the second Mark had a go at sculpting puffin sand art. Rich found time to make a bonus sand carving of the Welcome to Yorkshire logo.

The weather was typical for British summertime with some sunshine and rain showers but a great time was had by all and the beach was busy with sandcastles and the odd turtle as well as puffins. 

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