Is it legal to collect at Ostend, Belgium: Raversijde beach, drowned fishing village foreshore?

Legal to collect. Flemish Onroerenderfgoeddecreet: loose beach finds may be kept if made available for study, report with photos and location to Onroerend Erfgoed; metal detecting needs registration as erkend detectorist; leave structures and concentrations in place

Explore / Europe / More of Europe

West Flanders

Ostend, Belgium

Q: What can you find at Ostend, Belgium: Raversijde beach, drowned fishing village foreshore?

Roman and medieval pottery sherds, brick concentrations, flint, wreck timber, WWII metal, bone

Raversijde beach, drowned fishing village foreshore

Tidal foreshore Source-confirmed findsLegal to collect

Save spot Explore on map →

What you could find

Reported finds from this shoreline.

Sea pottery

Flint and stone tools

Wreck timber

Also reported: brick concentrations, WWII metal, bone.

Photos via Wikimedia Commons: NPS (Public domain), James St. John (CC BY 2.0), NPS photo (Public domain).

Why this spot

Walraversijde fishing village (13th to 17th c.) and Roman salt and dike works lie under the beach and dunes, drowned by the 1394 storm; erosion spreads sherds over the sand.

Onroerend Erfgoed blog names Raversijde as the beach where Roman pottery sherds are spread across the current beach and lists what beach finders pick up (sherds, wreck wood, flint, brick)View source →