Norfolk
Today at Happisburgh
FairBig tide today (spring tide) — more beach exposed, but it comes back in fast.
A big 0.4 m low tide falls mid-afternoon.
Safe window: 1:31pm – 4:31pm
Leave the beach by 4:31pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Big tide today (spring tide) — more beach exposed, but it comes back in fast.
A big 0.4 m low tide falls mid-afternoon.
Low tide: 3:31pm (0.4 m) · Wind up to 26 km/h · Waves 1.2 m
Safe window: 2:18pm – 5:18pm
Leave the beach by 5:18pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Big tide today (spring tide) — more beach exposed, but it comes back in fast.
A big 0.3 m low tide falls mid-afternoon.
Low tide: 3:46am (0.9 m), 4:18pm (0.3 m) · Wind up to 22 km/h · Waves 0.9 m
Safe window: 3:02pm – 6:02pm
Leave the beach by 6:02pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Big tide today (spring tide) — more beach exposed, but it comes back in fast.
A big 0.3 m low tide falls towards evening.
Low tide: 4:25am (1.0 m), 5:02pm (0.3 m) · Wind up to 26 km/h · Waves 1.1 m
Safe window: 3:43pm – 6:43pm
Leave the beach by 6:43pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Big tide today (spring tide) — more beach exposed, but it comes back in fast.
A big 0.4 m low tide falls towards evening.
Low tide: 5:00am (1.0 m), 5:43pm (0.4 m) · Wind up to 27 km/h · Waves 1.9 m
Safe window: 4:22pm – 7:22pm
Leave the beach by 7:22pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Big tide today (spring tide) — more beach exposed, but it comes back in fast.
A big 0.6 m low tide falls towards evening.
Low tide: 5:32am (1.1 m), 6:22pm (0.6 m) · Wind up to 29 km/h · Waves 2.0 m
Safe window: 4:58pm – 7:58pm
Leave the beach by 7:58pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Big tide today (spring tide) — more beach exposed, but it comes back in fast.
A big 0.9 m low tide falls towards evening.
Low tide: 6:02am (1.3 m), 6:58pm (0.9 m) · Wind up to 25 km/h · Waves 1.6 m
Safe window: 5:33pm – 8:33pm
Leave the beach by 8:33pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Low tide falls towards evening, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
Low tide: 6:36am (1.4 m), 7:33pm (1.1 m) · Wind up to 25 km/h · Waves 1.1 m
Search the sand and gravel at low water for dark, heavy bone and rolled teeth washing from the ancient river beds. Beach levels change dramatically here — a scouring tide can expose (or bury) everything overnight, so no two visits are alike.
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 from the beach may be kept for personal collections.
Never allowed: No digging into the cliffs or the exposed beds — Happisburgh has produced Britain's oldest human footprints and tools, and unrecorded digging destroys world-class archaeology.
Important finds: Report any possible bone, tool or footprint surface to Norfolk Museums Service immediately.
Rules can change — check locally before you collect.
Detailed location guide at UK Fossils →
Pay-and-display car park by the lighthouse road end.
Seasonal kiosk; toilets by the car park.
Ramp access (changes as the coast erodes — follow signed route).
This is one of the fastest-eroding coasts in Britain: the soft cliffs slump constantly and collapse without warning — never stand on, under, or dig into them. Beach levels change dramatically between visits; the sea reaches the cliffs at high water.