Norfolk · Directions ↗
Today at West 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 12 km/h · Waves 0.5 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 23 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 – 4:41pm
Leave the beach by 4:41pm — 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
At low tide, search the gravel over and around the dark peaty Freshwater Bed at the cliff base end of the beach — bone, teeth and shell wash out of it constantly. The chalk reef's rock pools also trap echinoids and belemnites.
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 →
Beach car park at the end of Water Lane.
Café and toilets by the car park in season.
Concrete ramp onto the beach; the dark Freshwater Bed shows at the cliff base at low tide.
These soft cliffs are actively slumping — never climb on or dig into them, and keep clear after rain. Groynes and chalk reef are slippery; the sea reaches the cliff base at high water.
Fossil Forecast