Yorkshire · Directions ↗
Landslides regularly reshape this coast — your route back may not look like the map. Check your return route on the way out.
Today at Ravenscar
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: 1:35pm – 4:35pm
Leave the beach by 4:35pm — 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° · overcast · 3mm rain · Low tide: 3:35pm (1.3 m) · Wind up to 22 km/h · Waves 0.4 m
Safe window: 2:18pm – 5:18pm
Leave the beach by 5:18pm — 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° · overcast · Low tide: 3:46am (1.6 m), 4:18pm (1.7 m) · Wind up to 27 km/h · Waves 0.6 m
Safe window: 3:14pm – 6:14pm
Leave the beach by 6:14pm — 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.
18° · mostly clear · 4mm rain · Low tide: 4:33am (2.0 m), 5:14pm (2.2 m) · Wind up to 32 km/h · Waves 0.6 m
Safe window: 5:40am – 6:39am
Leave the beach by 6:39am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls first thing, though it is not an especially big one.
18° · mostly clear · Low tide: 5:39am (2.3 m), 6:35pm (2.5 m) · Wind up to 22 km/h · Waves 0.5 m
Safe window: 5:42am – 8:16am
Leave the beach by 8:16am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls first thing, though it is not an especially big one.
23° · mostly clear · Low tide: 7:16am (2.5 m), 8:18pm (2.6 m) · Wind up to 27 km/h · Waves 0.6 m
Safe window: 7:01am – 10:01am
Leave the beach by 10:01am — 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.
19° · overcast · Low tide: 9:01am (2.2 m), 9:43pm (2.3 m) · Wind up to 27 km/h · Waves 0.7 m
Safe window: 8:17am – 11:17am
Leave the beach by 11:17am — 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.
15° · overcast · 11mm rain · Low tide: 10:17am (1.7 m), 10:44pm (1.9 m) · Wind up to 27 km/h · Waves 1.0 m
Search the boulder fields below the old alum works — ammonites here can be impressively large, showing as coils on boulder faces. Loose finds concentrate along the tideline; this remote shore is rarely picked over.
Ammonites and belemnites weather out of the soft clays; crushed white shell patches often mark productive spots. Jet is matt black and feather-light. Free identification: the Rotunda Museum in Scarborough — the birthplace of English geology — welcomes enquiries.
This coast is a protected site (SSSI). What does that mean?
Allowed: Collecting loose fossils from the beach is long-established and accepted here.
Never allowed: No digging into the cliffs or hammering in-place rock on this SSSI coast.
Important finds: Report significant finds to the Rotunda Museum, Scarborough.
Rules can change — check locally before you collect.
Detailed location guide at UK Fossils →
Roadside parking near the National Trust visitor centre, Ravenscar.
NT visitor centre and tearoom at the top; nothing at shore level.
Long steep path to a remote rocky shore — allow plenty of time and energy for the climb back.
Remote, with no quick exit: a turned tide or twisted ankle here is serious. Check tides carefully and carry a charged phone; signal is patchy.
Fossil Forecast