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Are you heading to the beach with your family this summer? Thinking of taking your bucket and spade and building a sand castle? English Heritage and Sand In Your Eye’s Jamie Wardley have made this video to give you some top sand sculpting tips to take your castle to the next level!

Jamie, along with Claire Jamieson and Rodrigo were asked by the English Heritage Trust to build the ultimate sand castle at Dover Castle following these very methods and based on historically accurate medieval castle building techniques.

Claire Jamieson sand sculpture UK

Claire Jamieson at Dover Castle

Everybody knows you need to use wet sand to build a good castle but there’s so much more to it than that. By using your hands to pat the sand or “play the piano” like Jamie does in the sand castle building video, it compacts the grains down and makes your structure super hard and strong enough to face the oncoming waves. Have you ever thought of using a ruler or a wooden knife to do sand carving and add details? What else could you use that you might find on a day at the beach? Most castles on the beach have a tower and we all love to dig a moat and fill it up with sea water but does your’s have a motte, bailey, keep, crenellations and drawbridge like the real castles?

english heritage dover sand sculpting

The ultimate sand castle in detail
Credit – English Heritage/PA

Jamie Wardley sand art

Jamie Wardley building a sand sculpture

You can join Sand In Your Eye for some upcoming sand art engagement workshops at castles across England and help them build a giant sand castle. If you can’t make it to any of those you can download a flag from the English Heritage website and build your own – if you upload it to their website or Facebook and Instagram pages with the #LoveCastles hashtag you could be in with a chance of winning a stay in one of their lovely holiday cottages.

Can’t wait to see your sand sculptures!

dover castle ultimate sand castle

The ultimate sand castle at Dover castle

sand carving giant sand castle

Detail of sand carving at Dover Castle_

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"From carved pumpkins depicting beheaded Tudor royals to a realistic but giant castle sand sculpture, the Sand In Your Eye team have been brilliant at making our outlandish dreams a reality. Every request and idea is met with an open mind and they are buzzing with artistic ideas – we love working with the team because it feels like a partnership to create something special. Not only this but they are also reliable and dedicated, and we look forward to working with them again in the future."

Emma GoughEnglish Heritage
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"It’s been a pleasure to collaborate with Sand In Your Eye over the last two years. Together we’ve created a 60 metre sand portrait , a giant tennis ball mosaic at Wimbledon and a huge mud toilet sculpture at Glastonbury, all of which have helped us secure high quality media coverage for our campaigns. Working to the highest ethical and environmental standards, Sand In Your Eye go above and beyond to problem-solve and create unique activations that help WaterAid to reach new audiences. I look forward to more collaborations in future."

Anna France-WilliamsWaterAid
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"Hebden Royd Town Council have been proud to partner with Sand in Your Eye on a number of events and projects over the past 10 years. Sand in Your Eye have continually surpassed expectations and consistently deliver creative, engaging artworks of the highest quality which help the Town Council to connect with the community."

Emma GreenHebden Royd Town Council
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"We have worked with the team at Sand In Your Eye since we started delivering our projects in 2019. During that time we have found them to be imaginative, creative and inspiring in their thinking. The attention to detail, amazing creations and passion for all they do really sets them apart and we look forward to continuing our working relationships as we enter a new five year term."

Jonny NobleBradford BID Manager
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"It was a pleasure to work with the skilful team at Sand In Your Eye. From having initial idea discussions to working up designs, creating the land art and producing top quality film and imagery afterwards. We were delighted with the whole process from start to finish and would thoroughly recommend."

Emily WatsonNorth York Moors National Park
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"We were delighted with the outcome of our climate-themed Coal and Ice event at Woodhorn Museum. The Ice Trail looked stunning, with visitors really connecting with the poignancy of seeing beautifully carved endangered animals slowly begin to melt away. Throughout the project, the Sand in Your Eye team were enthusiastic, professional, collaborative and full of brilliant creative ideas. I wouldn't hesitate to work with Sand in Your Eye again and would highly recommend them to others."

Liz RitsonMuseums Northumberland, Woodhorn Museum
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"We had a really great experience working with Sand In Your Eye on our project raising awareness of UK nature loss. They were consistently friendly, professional and able to give us valuable advice where needed, and we were so impressed with the quality and detail of the final sand drawing, drone footage and final video."

Jane WilliamsonUK Youth For Nature
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"Altogether, we’ve worked with SIYE three times on campaigns for nature protection and climate justice. In addition to their talent, collaboration and efficiency, we really value SIYE’s green ethos and commitment to amplifying environmental issues. We would love to work with them again in the future."

Emma WilkinsonGreenhouse PR
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"We were really excited to work with Sand In Your Eye on this important project. The attention to detail and the tutorial videos we received to help our children put together the paper bees were just fabulous. The engagement in the project from all year groups was lovely to see. The team at Sand In Your Eye are creative, innovative and have a can-do attitude; no project is too big!"

Rob PaytonSchool Head Hebden Royd CofE
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"I just wanted to say how much we enjoyed the sand sculpting workshop. Jamie and Peter were fantastic, the whole activity played well to our audience (a high proportion with an engineering background!) – there was also lots of interest from the public in the activity."

Laura WeirGo Fibre

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