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 Whitby / Saltwick Bay
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 · 2mm rain · Low tide: 4:20am (2.5 m), 4:48pm (2.9 m) · Wind up to 29 km/h · Waves 1.9 m
Safe window: 4:23pm – 6:31pm
Leave the beach by 6:31pm — 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.
13° · overcast · 9mm rain · Low tide: 5:57am (2.5 m), 6:23pm (2.8 m) · Wind up to 32 km/h · Waves 1.7 m
Safe window: 7:06am – 8:14am
Leave the beach by 8:14am — 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.
13° · drizzle · 15mm rain · Low tide: 7:14am (2.3 m), 7:32pm (2.6 m) · Wind up to 32 km/h · Waves 1.5 m
Safe window: 7:08am – 9:08am
Leave the beach by 9:08am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Heavy rain in the last two days may have washed fresh material out of the cliffs. 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 0.9 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 1.0 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 1.0 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 0.8 m
Search the scaurs and boulder gaps at Saltwick at low water, especially after a northerly blow. Nodules with coiled edges, belemnites and jet fragments are all found loose — the beach renews itself with every rough tide.
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 →
Abbey car park above Saltwick, or park in Whitby and walk.
Holiday park shop above Saltwick in season; full facilities in Whitby.
Steep path down from the holiday park, or along the shore from Whitby at low water.
Saltwick Bay traps visitors on the rising tide year after year — both exits flood before the middle of the beach. Go down on a falling tide, know your return time, and never rely on climbing out.
Fossil Forecast