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Today at Staithes
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: 12:41pm – 3:41pm
Leave the beach by 3:41pm — 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.
20° · overcast · 2mm rain · Low tide: 2:41pm (1.2 m) · Wind up to 22 km/h · Waves 0.5 m
Safe window: 1:26pm – 4:26pm
Leave the beach by 4:26pm — 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.
20° · overcast · 4mm rain · Low tide: 2:55am (1.5 m), 3:26pm (1.6 m) · Wind up to 25 km/h · Waves 0.8 m
Safe window: 2:22pm – 5:22pm
Leave the beach by 5:22pm — 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° · mostly clear · 2mm rain · Low tide: 3:43am (1.8 m), 4:22pm (2.0 m) · Wind up to 33 km/h · Waves 0.8 m
Safe window: 5:41am – 5:49am
Leave the beach by 5:49am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls first thing, though it is not an especially big one. Daylight cuts the collecting window to under 45 minutes, so don't plan a long session.
19° · clear · Low tide: 4:49am (2.2 m), 5:43pm (2.4 m) · Wind up to 26 km/h · Waves 0.8 m
Safe window: 5:43am – 7:27am
Leave the beach by 7:27am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls first thing, though it is not an especially big one.
24° · mostly clear · Low tide: 6:27am (2.3 m), 7:28pm (2.4 m) · Wind up to 28 km/h · Waves 0.7 m
Safe window: 6:10am – 9:10am
Leave the beach by 9:10am — 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 · Low tide: 8:10am (2.1 m), 8:50pm (2.2 m) · Wind up to 30 km/h · Waves 0.9 m
Safe window: 7:24am – 10:24am
Leave the beach by 10:24am — 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.
17° · overcast · 8mm rain · Low tide: 9:24am (1.6 m), 9:51pm (1.9 m) · Wind up to 34 km/h · Waves 1.1 m
Round Penny Nab on a falling tide and search the rock pools and nodule-strewn scars towards Port Mulgrave. Grey rounded nodules with a hint of a coil at the edge are the prize — gather them loose from the beach and split them at home.
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 →
Car park at the top of the village (the old bank is too steep and narrow for parking below).
Toilets, cafés and pubs in the village.
Walk through the harbour; hunt east towards Port Mulgrave under Penny Nab at low tide.
The stretch beyond Penny Nab cuts off on a rising tide. Constant small rockfalls from the shale cliffs — helmets are sensible, standing under overhangs is not.
Fossil Forecast