Yorkshire · Directions ↗
Today at Staithes
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: 9:04am – 12:04pm
Leave the beach by 12:04pm — 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: 11:04am (1.3 m), 11:21pm (1.3 m) · Wind up to 8 km/h · Waves 0.4 m
Safe window: 9:35am – 12:35pm
Leave the beach by 12:35pm — 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 · 1mm rain · Low tide: 11:35am (1.4 m), 11:53pm (1.3 m) · Wind up to 14 km/h · Waves 1.2 m
No safe daylight window
Why: Rough seas with big waves forecast — stay off the beach today.
8° · overcast · Low tide: 12:05pm (1.6 m) · Wind up to 36 km/h · Waves 3.4 m
No safe daylight window
Why: Rough seas with big waves forecast — stay off the beach today.
6° · clear · Low tide: 12:25am (1.5 m), 12:35pm (1.8 m) · Wind up to 30 km/h · Waves 3.0 m
Safe window: 11:08am – 2:08pm
Leave the beach by 2:08pm — 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.
8° · mostly clear · Low tide: 1:00am (1.6 m), 1:08pm (2.0 m) · Wind up to 22 km/h · Waves 1.5 m
Safe window: 11:45am – 2:45pm
Leave the beach by 2:45pm — 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.
8° · overcast · Low tide: 1:39am (1.8 m), 1:45pm (2.3 m) · Wind up to 20 km/h · Waves 0.7 m
Safe window: 12:32pm – 3:32pm
Leave the beach by 3:32pm — 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: 2:26am (2.0 m), 2:32pm (2.5 m) · Wind up to 28 km/h · Waves 1.7 m
Round Penny Nab on a falling tide and search the rock pools and nodule-strewn scars towards Port Mulgrave. Grey rounded nodules with a hint of a coil at the edge are the prize — gather them loose from the beach and split them at home.
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 →
Car park at the top of the village (the old bank is too steep and narrow for parking below).
Toilets, cafés and pubs in the village.
Walk through the harbour; hunt east towards Port Mulgrave under Penny Nab at low tide.
The stretch beyond Penny Nab cuts off on a rising tide. Constant small rockfalls from the shale cliffs — helmets are sensible, standing under overhangs is not.
Fossil Forecast