Home / North Scotland / Durness

Balnakiel Bay

★★★★★Fair
Beach break Faces NW all tides Offshore south-east Best swell North West

Best of the week: Monday around 12:00, 6–8 ft and offshore.

Surf now1–2ft1.2 m at 9 s from the N, wind sea 2.2 m from the SE
Wind12mphS · offshore · gusts 22
Tide 3.8mRising · high 19:03 (4.4 m). Works all tides.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sat
1–2 ft Swell SE 5s Wind 12 mph ★★★★★
Sun
4–6 ft Swell W 7s Wind 36 mph ★★★★★
Mon
6–8 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 8 mph ★★★★★
Tue
1–2 ft Swell SW 6s Wind 21 mph ★★★★★
Wed
6–8 ft Swell W 7s Wind 22 mph ★★★★★
Thu
3–4 ft Swell NW 6s Wind 11 mph ★★★★★
Fri
0–1 ft Swell W 8s Wind 11 mph ★★★★★
Sat 24 Sun 25 Mon 26 Tue 27 Wed 28 Thu 29 Fri 30
Time 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18
Surf ft 0 4–6 3–4 24–32 29–38 24–32 9–12 7–10 6–8 5–7 4–6 1–2 0–1 0–1 1–2 1–2 6–8 6–9 6–8 5–7 3–5 3–4 3–4 3–4 3–4 1–2 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1
Swell 8s 7s 9s 11s 12s 12s 10s 9s 9s 9s 9s 6s 5s 5s 6s 8s 7s 10s 9s 6s 8s 7s 6s 6s 6s 7s 8s 8s 9s 9s 9s
Wind mph 13 18 25 39 36 35 14 7 8 12 18 21 30 38 34 33 22 18 17 22 20 19 15 10 12 14 12 11 10 8 5
Tide m 4.1↑ 4.2↑ 3.3↓ 1.0↓ 1.9↑ 4.5↑ 4.1↑ 3.9↓ 1.2↓ 1.2↑ 4.2↑ 3.6↑ 4.3↓ 1.6↓ 0.6↑ 3.5↑ 3.0↑ 4.6↓ 2.3↓ 0.5↑ 2.7↑ 2.3↑ 4.5↑ 3.0↓ 0.7↓ 1.8↑ – – – – –
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

Surf is the face height at the beach after the swell is filtered for the way Balnakiel Bay faces. Arrows point to where the swell and wind come from: an arrow pointing up means from the north. Tide is the height at Kyle Of Durness above chart datum, rising ↑ or falling ↓; the rating drops when the tide is outside the window this break works on. Amber marks the sessions worth setting an alarm for. From Tuesday the swell comes from Météo-France's 10-day model, which is coarser than the 5 km German model used close in. Hours no model reaches are left blank, not shown as flat.

Exposure

Balnakiel Bay faces north-west. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from NW round to N; the brighter a wedge, the deeper the water in that direction and the more of the swell gets in. Anything from behind the headlands scores nothing, however big the buoy says it is.

NESWfaces NWNSE
N
1.2 m at 9 s (swell) · 37 % reaches the beach
SE
2.2 m at 5 s (wind sea) · blocked, 0 %

How Balnakiel Bay works

Swell
Best from the north west.
Wind
Offshore is from the south-east; anything with north-west in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
all tides.
Getting there
Head along the north coast road ( a 838) mind a few sheep along the way.. and head for durness..

Good shelter, long beach break.. mad place.. be sure to visit the craft centre.. bizarre! good for protection from northly winds.

Tide times

  • Sat 19:03High4.4 m
  • Sun 01:47Low0.4 m
  • Sun 06:39High4.4 m
  • Sun 12:59Low0.8 m
  • Sun 18:44High4.6 m
  • Mon 01:22Low0.3 m
  • Mon 07:16High4.5 m
  • Mon 13:36Low0.6 m

Kyle Of Durness station, 2 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
Surging swell near Eilean Dubh - geograph.org.uk - 3818043 A big Atlantic swell reaches the shore at Balnakeil Bay - geograph.org.uk - 3818050

Alan Reid, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Alan Reid, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Comments

Nothing said about Balnakiel Bay yet. Surfed it? Say what it's like.

Log in or join to comment.

Nearby