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Today at Herne Bay (Beltinge), Kent
Good day to huntBig tide today (spring tide) — more beach exposed, but it comes back in fast.
Why: A recent north-easterly blow should have brought fresh cliff material onto the beach. A big 0.3 m low tide falls towards evening.
Safe window: 6:05pm – 9:05pm
Leave the beach by 9:05pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Big tide today (spring tide) — more beach exposed, but it comes back in fast.
Why: A recent north-easterly blow should have brought fresh cliff material onto the beach. A big 0.3 m low tide falls towards evening.
21° · overcast · Low tide: 8:05pm (0.3 m) · Wind up to 28 km/h · Waves 1.0 m
Safe window: 6:54pm – 9:50pm
Leave the beach by 9:50pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Big tide today (spring tide) — more beach exposed, but it comes back in fast.
Why: A big 0.2 m low tide falls towards evening.
21° · mostly clear · Low tide: 8:27am (0.7 m), 8:54pm (0.2 m) · Wind up to 26 km/h · Waves 0.9 m
Safe window: 7:42pm – 9:49pm
Leave the beach by 9:49pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Big tide today (spring tide) — more beach exposed, but it comes back in fast.
Why: A big 0.2 m low tide falls towards evening.
22° · mostly clear · Low tide: 9:14am (0.7 m), 9:42pm (0.2 m) · Wind up to 17 km/h · Waves 0.6 m
Safe window: 8:27pm – 9:48pm
Leave the beach by 9:48pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Big tide today (spring tide) — more beach exposed, but it comes back in fast.
Why: A big 0.4 m low tide falls towards evening.
22° · mostly clear · Low tide: 10:00am (0.8 m), 10:27pm (0.4 m) · Wind up to 20 km/h · Waves 0.6 m
Safe window: 9:12pm – 9:46pm
Leave the beach by 9:46pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Big tide today (spring tide) — more beach exposed, but it comes back in fast.
Why: A big 0.6 m low tide falls towards evening. Daylight cuts the collecting window to under 45 minutes, so don't plan a long session.
21° · mostly clear · Low tide: 10:44am (1.0 m), 11:12pm (0.6 m) · Wind up to 24 km/h · Waves 0.7 m
Safe window: 9:28am – 12:28pm
Leave the beach by 12:28pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls at lunchtime, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
25° · mostly clear · Low tide: 11:28am (1.2 m), 11:57pm (0.8 m) · Wind up to 23 km/h · Waves 0.5 m
Safe window: 10:13am – 1:13pm
Leave the beach by 1:13pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls at lunchtime, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
20° · mostly clear · Low tide: 12:13pm (1.5 m) · Wind up to 21 km/h · Waves 0.4 m
Walk out towards Reculver on a falling tide and search the shell-and-pebble gravel at the low-water mark — shark teeth concentrate where the waves sort the finest gravel. Ten minutes of crouching beats an hour of strolling.
Shark teeth are glossy, dark and triangular — usually under an inch, lying in the low-water gravel. Pyrite fossils look like brassy twigs. Rounded brown nodules with rusty cracks can hide crabs and turtle bone. Identification: photograph finds for the Natural History Museum's identification service.
This coast is a protected site (SSSI). What does that mean?
Allowed: Loose fossils from the beach and foreshore may be kept; sieving loose gravel is fine.
Never allowed: No digging into the cliffs or sea defences on this SSSI coast.
Important finds: Unusual finds (bird bones, complete crabs, turtle material) are scientifically valuable — photograph them for the Natural History Museum.
Rules can change — check locally before you collect.
Detailed location guide at UK Fossils →
Roadside parking at Beltinge / Reculver Drive area; car park at Reculver.
Facilities in Herne Bay and at Reculver country park.
Ramps and steps down to the shore; hunt the gravel at low tide towards Reculver.
London Clay foreshore is very slippery and muddy in patches. The sea reaches the sea defences at high water — walk out on a falling tide.
Fossil Forecast