Norfolk · Directions ↗
Today at East Runton
Quiet dayWhy: Low tide falls at lunchtime, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
Safe window: 11:29am – 2:29pm
Leave the beach by 2:29pm — 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.
11° · overcast · Low tide: 1:08am (1.2 m), 1:29pm (1.1 m) · Wind up to 15 km/h · Waves 0.6 m
Safe window: 11:57am – 2:57pm
Leave the beach by 2:57pm — 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.
11° · overcast · Low tide: 1:43am (1.2 m), 1:57pm (1.2 m) · Wind up to 24 km/h · Waves 0.7 m
Safe window: 12:25pm – 3:25pm
Leave the beach by 3:25pm — 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.
9° · overcast · Low tide: 2:16am (1.2 m), 2:25pm (1.4 m) · Wind up to 30 km/h · Waves 2.5 m
Safe window: 12:55pm – 3:55pm
Leave the beach by 3:55pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Recent heavy seas should have washed fresh material onto the beach. Low tide falls mid-afternoon, though it is not an especially big one.
8° · mostly clear · Low tide: 2:48am (1.3 m), 2:55pm (1.6 m) · Wind up to 25 km/h · Waves 2.3 m
Safe window: 1:28pm – 4:28pm
Leave the beach by 4:28pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Recent heavy seas should have washed fresh material onto the beach. Low tide falls mid-afternoon, though it is not an especially big one.
6° · mostly clear · Low tide: 3:22am (1.4 m), 3:28pm (1.7 m) · Wind up to 13 km/h · Waves 1.2 m
Safe window: 2:07pm – 4:40pm
Leave the beach by 4:40pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Recent heavy seas should have washed fresh material onto the beach. Low tide falls mid-afternoon, though it is not an especially big one.
8° · overcast · Low tide: 3:59am (1.6 m), 4:07pm (1.9 m) · Wind up to 17 km/h · Waves 0.4 m
Safe window: 2:52pm – 4:39pm
Leave the beach by 4:39pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Recent heavy seas should have washed fresh material onto the beach. Low tide falls mid-afternoon, though it is not an especially big one.
10° · mostly clear · 2mm rain · Low tide: 4:41am (1.7 m), 4:52pm (2.1 m) · Wind up to 15 km/h · Waves 0.7 m
Work the flint gravel and the chalk reef at low water — star-marked urchin flints and belemnites are regular finds, with Ice Age bone appearing after scouring tides.
Ice Age bone from the 'forest bed' is dark brown to black, heavy, with a honeycomb texture at broken ends. Sea-urchin fossils show as five-pointed stars on rounded flint pebbles. Free identification: Cromer Museum (photo enquiries via Norfolk Museums Service).
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 →
Clifftop car park off the A149 at East Runton gap.
Toilets in season; pubs and shop in the village.
Ramp down the gap onto sand and chalk reef.
Soft, actively slumping cliffs — stay off the slumps, especially after wet weather. High tide reaches the cliff base along much of this stretch.
Fossil Forecast