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Today at Herne Bay (Beltinge), Kent
Quiet dayWhy: Low tide falls towards evening, though it is not an especially big one. Daylight cuts the collecting window to under 45 minutes, so don't plan a long session. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
Safe window: 4:47pm – 4:52pm
Leave the beach by 4:52pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls towards evening, though it is not an especially big one. Daylight cuts the collecting window to under 45 minutes, so don't plan a long session. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
9° · overcast · 12mm rain · Low tide: 6:32am (0.9 m), 6:47pm (0.8 m) · Wind up to 20 km/h · Waves 0.8 m
Safe window: 6:30am – 8:07am
Leave the beach by 8:07am — 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.
11° · overcast · 9mm rain · Low tide: 7:07am (1.0 m), 7:21pm (1.0 m) · Wind up to 25 km/h · Waves 0.9 m
Safe window: 6:32am – 8:40am
Leave the beach by 8:40am — 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: 7:40am (1.0 m), 7:54pm (1.2 m) · Wind up to 31 km/h · Waves 1.0 m
Safe window: 6:33am – 9:13am
Leave the beach by 9:13am — 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.
7° · clear · Low tide: 8:13am (1.1 m), 8:27pm (1.3 m) · Wind up to 28 km/h · Waves 0.9 m
Safe window: 6:45am – 9:45am
Leave the beach by 9:45am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls first thing, though it is not an especially big one.
7° · clear · Low tide: 8:45am (1.1 m), 9:01pm (1.4 m) · Wind up to 14 km/h · Waves 0.3 m
Safe window: 7:21am – 10:21am
Leave the beach by 10:21am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls mid-morning, though it is not an especially big one.
10° · overcast · Low tide: 9:21am (1.2 m), 9:39pm (1.5 m) · Wind up to 18 km/h · Waves 0.3 m
Safe window: 8:03am – 11:03am
Leave the beach by 11:03am — 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.
12° · mostly clear · 5mm rain · Low tide: 10:03am (1.3 m), 10:25pm (1.7 m) · Wind up to 18 km/h · Waves 0.2 m
Walk out towards Reculver on a falling tide and search the shell-and-pebble gravel at the low-water mark — shark teeth concentrate where the waves sort the finest gravel. Ten minutes of crouching beats an hour of strolling.
Shark teeth are glossy, dark and triangular — usually under an inch, lying in the low-water gravel. Pyrite fossils look like brassy twigs. Rounded brown nodules with rusty cracks can hide crabs and turtle bone. Identification: photograph finds for the Natural History Museum's identification service.
This coast is a protected site (SSSI). What does that mean?
Allowed: Loose fossils from the beach and foreshore may be kept; sieving loose gravel is fine.
Never allowed: No digging into the cliffs or sea defences on this SSSI coast.
Important finds: Unusual finds (bird bones, complete crabs, turtle material) are scientifically valuable — photograph them for the Natural History Museum.
Rules can change — check locally before you collect.
Detailed location guide at UK Fossils →
Roadside parking at Beltinge / Reculver Drive area; car park at Reculver.
Facilities in Herne Bay and at Reculver country park.
Ramps and steps down to the shore; hunt the gravel at low tide towards Reculver.
London Clay foreshore is very slippery and muddy in patches. The sea reaches the sea defences at high water — walk out on a falling tide.
Fossil Forecast