Fortescue Beach, NJ

by Amanda
(Breinigsville, PA, US)

Mostly green,brown, white with one tiny piece of blue. My finger for size reference.

Mostly green,brown, white with one tiny piece of blue. My finger for size reference.

Fortescue Beach, NJ
 
On a daytrip to Cape May, NJ, we decided to take a detour to Fortescue after I read on this website that it was a good place to find beach glass.

Lord was it ever!

I found a bucket full of med. to large pieces scattered up and down the beach and I didn't even have to get wet!

On the downside, it was all green, brown, and white with one tiny piece of cobalt blue (see pictures).

I also found a large piece of porcelain that my husband laughingly thinks is part of a toilet. Can't tell, but it's dated, so who knows.

If you are planning a trip there, it's a small town and the beach is located of New Jersey Ave. There is no passes to buy or public facilities.

It is a VERY small beach and we only saw 1 older couple there.

Note: A word of warning and some advice. Our car was swarmed by 'greenheads' which are these large horse-flys that bite.

They covered our car and attacked us when we got out.

I had to put on jeans, wrap a towel around my shoulders, wear a hat and glasses to even spend 15 minutes on the beach and they still bit any area left uncovered.

There must have been over 50 of them swarming me as I walked down the beach making it difficlut to hunt, not to mention, I dared not stop walking, even as I was stooping to retrieve a piece.

I've read online that the best time to avoid them is to go in late August or September and early in the morning.

If you go as we did, July 4th weekend, mid-day,cover up or you'll be sorry!

They're not dangerous but their bites sting and my family

ended up staying in the car as I hunted.

I guess that's what comes with being near a marsh.

Definitely littered with sea glass, though, and I wonder what I would have found had I had the chance to stay and do a thorough hunt.

Good luck, guys!



Disclaimer
OdysseySeaGlass appreciates this and all reports we receive. However, when evaluating a report, use good judgment.

Note:
  • This report rated the beach "--- Excellent - 10+ pieces of jewelry grade sea glass found per hour."
  • However, the photos showed only craft grade sea glass.
As always, we remind folks that sea glass beach reports are not confirmed by Lin or me at Odyssey Sea Glass unless otherwise stated.

Reports that do not include photos of the sea glass found are less reliable. So use your own judgement in deciding whether to travel to this particular beach or not.

David and Lin @ OdysseySeaGlass



Here are some more pages about Fortescue and sea glass:


Sea Glass
 Sea Glass Photo Contest - Purple - Great Finds for New Jersey Beach
Purple piece of glass was found in December 2010, on Fortescue Beach in New Jersey. It was cold and the top half of the beach was snow covered.

Sea Glass
 Fortescue, NJ - Sea Glass Report
Based on the recommendations on this site, my hubby and I decided to leave Atlantic City NJ - where we're visiting and usually find lots of beach glass.


Sea Glass Questions
 Questions about Sea Glass
Questions about sea glass Identification, beaches, and more - ask here!
 

Heart Stones
Books related to sea glass Heart Stones~ by Josie Iselin
"I had the privilege of meeting and talking with Josie Iselin at the Santa Cruz Sea Glass Festival recently. Josie is the author of several excellent beach-finds-art-photography books.  "Heart Stones is her latest and merits a place on your coffee table."
 ~ David Schneider, OdysseySeaGlass.com


Comments for Fortescue Beach, NJ

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Jun 23, 2021
 Broken glass is not sea glass
by: Anonymous

Lots of trash and bugs. Lots of broken glass but raw. Nothing worth collecting. Out of 90 pieces only 10 worth keeping. Water is disgusting. No food or restaurants around. Not for swimming! Fishing yes. But all trailer parks around. Seems like a very poor area. Houses and sheds falling apart. Nothing beautiful about this place. When it floods watch out your stuck.one way in and out. Dead fish and turtles we saw. Lots of trash. Really stinky too. The shells turned green from the toxicity probably. If it's close to you check it out but if it's more than an hour drive it's not worth it. broken glass is not sea glass.
Nov 18, 2018
 Sea glass
by: Anonymous

My daughter and I went to a Fortescue Beach in June. We found this bay beach by accident but we heard they had a lot of Sea glass. We started to look and we saw a lot of horshoe crabs and even sweet little baby turtles. I looked down and saw a piece of sea glass and that was it. We just kept finding it and finding, we were blown away and couldn’t believe how much sea glass there was. We couldn’t wait to get home and count it. We laid it all out on a towel and starting counting and we were beside ourselves. We found 932 pieces and maybe about 80! Of those pieces weren’t ready. It was crazy! We had so much fun and with each piece we really got excited. We live by LBI and we found a lot by us and by Seaside and Bay Head but we hit the Jackpot in Fortescue. I went back another tome and the flies were bad but I would like to try again soon because up by me you do better finding sea glas in the fall and winter!
Jul 17, 2018
 Worth the trip
by: Michelle

I found some excellent pieces at Fortescue Beach, and overall found probably the most glass I have ever come across on one trip. The vast majority was definitely craft grade glass, but I did find a couple of jewelry grade pieces AND I was very excited to find my first shards of pottery! I found mostly green, amber, and clear glass, with a few nice pieces of pale blue.

One note: At the time we visited (early June), the beach was covered in horseshoe crabs and their eggs. (Part of the beach was actually closed because of this: migratory birds come to the beach to eat the eggs, and so a big area was roped off to protect it for the birds.) I thought the crab situation was gross, but it was still worth the trip. I will definitely return the next time we are in the area.
May 08, 2017
 My Fortescue Finds
by: Anonymous

Fortescue is a tiny fisherman's paradise nestled on the Delaware Bay. My boyfriend and I had heard about the sea glass found on this beach. So we set out to find out for ourselves. We arrived late in the afternoon. So I was certain that any good finds would have been scooped up much earlier in the day.

We were pleasantly surprised to find a lot of craft grade glass littered everywhere. it didn't take long to fill my bag with interesting white brown and green glass. This has been a spur of the moment trip and we were not planning to stay. But we were able to find a room in a small hotel for the night. Then set out on the search again at 5 am.

We scored an amazing haul. Finding aquas, greens, amber, cobalt, white, brown, two pieces of black and a tiny red and several flow blue pottery pieces. One of the white pieces had a star and several has embossed letters on them. I'll reiterate that most of the glass that we found was craft grade. 3 pieces were nice enough to be jewelry grade.

This town was hit hard during super storm Sandy a few years ago. So who knows what you will find out there. In all we came away with around 5 lbs of glass that day.
Feb 05, 2016
 sea finds and bird
by: Anonymous

Visit Fortescue Beach from spring to fall - the spring brings the horseshoe crabs laying eggs and with that brings a great shorebird migration which everyone should experience - this is a critical stop over for them but besides this I have found several great finds old childrens toys clay pots and pottery as well as sea glass.

Be respectful of the locals and enjoy the stroll.

Also many eagles, ospreys and other bird species.

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