Norfolk · Directions ↗
Today at Hunstanton
Quiet dayWhy: Low tide falls mid-afternoon, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
Safe window: 2:51pm – 5:51pm
Leave the beach by 5:51pm — 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.
19° · drizzle · Low tide: 4:51pm (1.2 m) · Wind up to 25 km/h · Waves 0.5 m
Safe window: 3:34pm – 6:34pm
Leave the beach by 6:34pm — 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.
22° · overcast · Low tide: 5:05am (1.6 m), 5:34pm (1.6 m) · Wind up to 28 km/h · Waves 0.6 m
Safe window: 5:38am – 6:52am
Leave the beach by 6:52am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls first thing, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
20° · overcast · 3mm rain · Low tide: 5:52am (2.0 m), 6:25pm (2.1 m) · Wind up to 37 km/h · Waves 0.7 m
Safe window: 5:40am – 7:56am
Leave the beach by 7:56am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: A recent south-westerly blow should have brought fresh cliff material onto the beach. An early-autumn blow like this restocks beaches after the quiet summer. Low tide falls first thing, though it is not an especially big one.
19° · mostly clear · Low tide: 6:56am (2.3 m), 7:39pm (2.5 m) · Wind up to 25 km/h · Waves 0.5 m
Safe window: 6:30am – 9:30am
Leave the beach by 9:30am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: A recent south-westerly blow should have brought fresh cliff material onto the beach. An early-autumn blow like this restocks beaches after the quiet summer. Low tide falls first thing, though it is not an especially big one.
24° · mostly clear · Low tide: 8:30am (2.5 m), 9:24pm (2.7 m) · Wind up to 27 km/h · Waves 0.3 m
Safe window: 8:13am – 11:13am
Leave the beach by 11:13am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: A recent south-westerly blow should have brought fresh cliff material onto the beach. An early-autumn blow like this restocks beaches after the quiet summer. Low tide falls mid-morning, though it is not an especially big one.
20° · overcast · Low tide: 10:13am (2.3 m), 10:54pm (2.5 m) · Wind up to 26 km/h · Waves 0.5 m
Safe window: 9:29am – 12:29pm
Leave the beach by 12:29pm — 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.
17° · drizzle · 6mm rain · Low tide: 11:29am (1.8 m), 11:59pm (2.1 m) · Wind up to 36 km/h · Waves 0.8 m
Search the fallen blocks and chalk rubble spread along the beach — belemnites and sea urchins weather out and collect in the gravel between the boulders. The blocks on the open beach have already fallen; those are the safe ones to search.
Belemnites weather out of the striped red-and-white chalk as amber bullet shapes. Sea urchins appear as domed flints with a faint five-pointed star. Brachiopod shells pepper the fallen blocks. Identification: Norfolk Museums Service accepts photo enquiries; Lynn Museum is nearest.
This coast is a protected site (SSSI). What does that mean?
Allowed: Loose fossils and bones from the beach may be kept for personal collections.
Never allowed: No digging into the cliffs — the fossil-bearing beds are protected (SSSI) and the cliffs are dangerously unstable anyway.
Important finds: Large bones may be part of a bigger skeleton — report them to Norfolk Museums Service before removing anything substantial.
Rules can change — check locally before you collect.
Detailed location guide at UK Fossils →
Large seafront car parks along the Esplanade and at the cliff top.
Full seaside-town facilities: toilets, cafés, shops.
Flat access onto sand below the famous red-and-white striped cliffs.
Blocks fall from the undercut Red Chalk and Carstone cliffs — stay off the fallen debris and away from the base. Wide flats and fast tides over the Wash sandbanks.
Fossil Forecast