The UK's most Instragrammed beach huts have been revealed - with shelters in one part of Kent among those most photographed in the UK.

With days out and beach trips currently replacing many foreign getaways it's perhaps no surprise the number of snaps people are sharing of our coastline are also increasing.

But alongside photos of ice creams cones, sun-kissed sandy beaches and sensational sunsets, colourful lines of beach huts are also taking their place in the world of social media with those in Whitstable proving to be a popular backdrop for keen photographers publishing their photos to sharing app Instagram.

According to research by Matalan, which has scoured the location hashtags for 18 of the UK's most popular seaside resorts to determine how many images have been shared on Instagram featuring beach huts, the east Kent town is among those to have been photographed by social media users tens of thousands of times.

Southwold in Suffolk is home to the most Instagrammed beach huts in the UK with more than 22,000 images of its bright wooden shelters.

But Whitstable is a close second with 20,644 Instagram pictures of the various beach huts along its seafront, found in more than 397,000 Instagram posts featuring the hashtag #Whitstable.

In third place is Norfolk's Wells-next-the-Sea with 12,726 beach hut photographs followed by Bude in Cornwall with more than 10,000 images of the colourful cabins on Instagram.

Mersea Island in Essex takes the fifth spot with 7,144 Instagram photos which feature its pastel coloured huts.

Alongside providing perfect photo backdrops for Instagram app users, the popularity of beach huts is said to have sky rocketed since the start of the pandemic as increasing numbers of people find ways to escape for a rest closer to home, while foreign travel remains difficult because of ongoing coronavirus restrictions.

Last month online rental company beachhuts.com said that internet searches for beach hut hire were up 300% as people went in search of ways to upgrade their British staycation.

Among the popular location searches by its customers were West Beach in Whistable and neighbouring Tankerton Beach as well as Southwold and Felixtowe in Suffolk, St Ives in Cornwall and West Wittering in West Sussex.

While Canterbury City Council is also hoping to respond to the 'staycation boom' with plans to build more huts in Whitstable and Herne Bay as part of efforts to boost the authority's financial position.

Read more: All the latest news from Whitstable