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 Ravenscar
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: 9:57am – 12:57pm
Leave the beach by 12:57pm — 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.
9° · overcast · Low tide: 11:57am (1.3 m) · Wind up to 8 km/h · Waves 0.4 m
Safe window: 10:29am – 1:29pm
Leave the beach by 1:29pm — 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.
9° · mostly clear · 1mm rain · Low tide: 12:15am (1.3 m), 12:29pm (1.5 m) · Wind up to 15 km/h · Waves 1.0 m
No safe daylight window
Why: Rough seas with big waves forecast — stay off the beach today.
7° · overcast · 1mm rain · Low tide: 12:47am (1.4 m), 12:59pm (1.7 m) · Wind up to 29 km/h · Waves 2.6 m
Safe window: 11:29am – 2:29pm
Leave the beach by 2:29pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Recent heavy seas should have washed fresh material onto the beach. Low tide falls at lunchtime, though it is not an especially big one.
5° · clear · Low tide: 1:19am (1.5 m), 1:29pm (1.9 m) · Wind up to 23 km/h · Waves 2.4 m
Safe window: 12:01pm – 3:01pm
Leave the beach by 3:01pm — 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° · overcast · Low tide: 1:54am (1.7 m), 2:01pm (2.2 m) · Wind up to 17 km/h · Waves 1.3 m
Safe window: 12:38pm – 3:38pm
Leave the beach by 3:38pm — 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° · overcast · Low tide: 2:32am (1.9 m), 2:38pm (2.4 m) · Wind up to 15 km/h · Waves 0.5 m
Safe window: 1:23pm – 4:23pm
Leave the beach by 4:23pm — 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.
9° · mostly clear · Low tide: 3:18am (2.1 m), 3:23pm (2.6 m) · Wind up to 20 km/h · Waves 1.4 m
Search the boulder fields below the old alum works — ammonites here can be impressively large, showing as coils on boulder faces. Loose finds concentrate along the tideline; this remote shore is rarely picked over.
Ammonites and belemnites weather out of the soft clays; crushed white shell patches often mark productive spots. Jet is matt black and feather-light. Free identification: the Rotunda Museum in Scarborough — the birthplace of English geology — welcomes 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.
Important finds: Report significant finds to the Rotunda Museum, Scarborough.
Rules can change — check locally before you collect.
Detailed location guide at UK Fossils →
Roadside parking near the National Trust visitor centre, Ravenscar.
NT visitor centre and tearoom at the top; nothing at shore level.
Long steep path to a remote rocky shore — allow plenty of time and energy for the climb back.
Remote, with no quick exit: a turned tide or twisted ankle here is serious. Check tides carefully and carry a charged phone; signal is patchy.
Fossil Forecast