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Today at Herne Bay (Beltinge), Kent
Quiet dayWhy: Low tide falls mid-morning, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
Safe window: 8:02am – 11:02am
Leave the beach by 11:02am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls mid-morning, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
20° · overcast · Low tide: 10:02am (0.9 m), 10:28pm (0.7 m) · Wind up to 25 km/h · Waves 0.5 m
Safe window: 8:39am – 11:39am
Leave the beach by 11:39am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls mid-morning, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
26° · mostly clear · Low tide: 10:39am (1.1 m), 11:10pm (0.9 m) · Wind up to 25 km/h · Waves 0.6 m
Safe window: 9:26am – 12:26pm
Leave the beach by 12:26pm — 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.
23° · overcast · Low tide: 11:26am (1.3 m) · Wind up to 33 km/h · Waves 0.7 m
Safe window: 10:28am – 1:28pm
Leave the beach by 1:28pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls at lunchtime, though it is not an especially big one.
22° · clear · Low tide: 12:03am (1.3 m), 12:28pm (1.5 m) · Wind up to 19 km/h · Waves 0.4 m
Safe window: 12:04pm – 3:04pm
Leave the beach by 3:04pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls mid-afternoon, though it is not an especially big one.
25° · overcast · Low tide: 1:18am (1.6 m), 2:04pm (1.7 m) · Wind up to 27 km/h · Waves 0.4 m
Safe window: 1:52pm – 4:52pm
Leave the beach by 4:52pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls mid-afternoon, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
23° · mostly clear · Low tide: 3:03am (1.8 m), 3:52pm (1.5 m) · Wind up to 27 km/h · Waves 0.3 m
Safe window: 3:05pm – 6:05pm
Leave the beach by 6:05pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls towards evening, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
20° · overcast · 2mm rain · Low tide: 4:34am (1.6 m), 5:05pm (1.1 m) · Wind up to 31 km/h · Waves 0.7 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