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Today at Sandsend
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: 2:48pm – 5:48pm
Leave the beach by 5:48pm — 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.
14° · overcast · 3mm rain · Low tide: 4:20am (2.5 m), 4:48pm (2.9 m) · Wind up to 30 km/h · Waves 2.2 m
Safe window: 4:23pm – 6:32pm
Leave the beach by 6:32pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Recent heavy seas should have washed fresh material onto the beach. An early-autumn blow like this restocks beaches after the quiet summer. Low tide falls towards evening, though it is not an especially big one.
13° · overcast · 9mm rain · Low tide: 5:57am (2.5 m), 6:23pm (2.8 m) · Wind up to 32 km/h · Waves 2.1 m
Safe window: 7:06am – 8:14am
Leave the beach by 8:14am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Recent heavy seas should have washed fresh 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.
13° · drizzle · 15mm rain · Low tide: 7:14am (2.3 m), 7:32pm (2.6 m) · Wind up to 32 km/h · Waves 1.8 m
Safe window: 7:08am – 9:08am
Leave the beach by 9:08am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Recent heavy seas should have washed fresh 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.
11° · clear · Low tide: 8:08am (2.0 m), 8:22pm (2.2 m) · Wind up to 25 km/h · Waves 1.2 m
No safe daylight window
Why: Winds gusting around 103 km/h forecast — not a day to be under cliffs.
13° · drizzle · 49mm rain · Low tide: 8:51am (1.6 m), 9:04pm (1.9 m) · Wind up to 62 km/h · Waves 1.2 m
Safe window: 7:30am – 10:30am
Leave the beach by 10:30am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: A recent north-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.
10° · overcast · Low tide: 9:30am (1.3 m), 9:42pm (1.6 m) · Wind up to 42 km/h · Waves 1.3 m
No safe daylight window
Why: Winds gusting around 78 km/h forecast — not a day to be under cliffs.
16° · mostly clear · 2mm rain · Low tide: 9:07am (1.1 m), 9:20pm (1.4 m) · Wind up to 48 km/h · Waves 1.0 m
Head north below the old alum quarries and search the rock pools and loose shale at low tide. Ammonites, belemnites and the odd sliver of true jet hide in the gravel — jet floats in a bucket of water, sea coal doesn't.
Ammonites hide inside rounded grey nodules — a coiled edge showing at the rim is the giveaway (take nodules home to split carefully; never hammer at the cliff). Jet is matt black, feather-light and warm to the touch; sea coal looks similar but heavier and dirtier. Belemnites are amber bullet-shaped rods. Free identification: Whitby Museum welcomes photo 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; leave the jet seams alone — commercial jet digging has damaged this coast.
Important finds: Report significant finds to Whitby Museum.
Rules can change — check locally before you collect.
Detailed location guide at UK Fossils →
Pay car parks at Sandsend and along the seafront road to Whitby.
Toilets, cafés and shops in the village.
Flat access from the car park; hunt north below the old alum quarry cliffs.
The rocky stretch towards Kettleness is a tide trap — turn back as soon as the tide turns. Old quarry cliffs shed loose stone in wet weather.
Fossil Forecast