Home / North Scotland / Durness

Balnakiel Bay

★★★★★Small
Beach break Faces W all tides Offshore West Best swell North West

Best of the week: Thursday around 16:00, 3–5 ft and offshore.

Surf now8–12ft2.2 m at 11 s from the W, wind sea 1.5 m from the W
Wind22mphSW · onshore · gusts 39
Tide 3.2mFalling · low 21:54 (1.5 m). Works all tides.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sun
8–12 ft Swell W 11s Wind 21 mph ★★★★★
Mon
14–20 ft Swell NW 12s Wind 19 mph ★★★★★
Tue
9–12 ft Swell NW 10s Wind 10 mph ★★★★★
Wed
5–8 ft Swell W 8s Wind 11 mph ★★★★★
Thu
3–5 ft Swell N 6s Wind 4 mph ★★★★★
Fri
3–5 ft Swell W 4s Wind 9 mph ★★★★★
Sat
11–16 ft Swell W 7s Wind 17 mph ★★★★★
Sun 4 Mon 5 Tue 6 Wed 7 Thu 8 Fri 9 Sat 10
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 8–12 8–12 10–14 10–15 12–17 14–20 9–12 8–11 7–11 7–10 6–9 6–9 5–7 5–7 5–8 5–8 4–6 4–6 4–6 3–5 3–5 1–2 3–5 4–6 4–6 4–6 8–11 9–13 11–15 11–16 11–16
Swell 11s 7s 8s 7s 8s 12s 10s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 7s 7s 8s 8s 7s 6s 6s 6s 6s 7s 4s 5s 5s 5s 6s 6s 7s 7s 7s
Wind mph 20 27 22 25 24 19 10 9 20 13 11 11 13 13 11 10 11 12 8 5 5 15 10 15 16 12 13 14 16 17 17
Tide m 2.6↓ 3.1↓ 2.4↓ 2.5↑ 3.6↑ 3.2↓ 3.6↓ 2.6↓ 1.9↑ 3.3↑ 3.9↓ 4.0↑ 3.0↓ 1.6↓ 2.7↑ 4.3↑ 4.0↑ 3.4↓ 1.5↓ 2.0↑ 4.4↑ 3.7↑ 3.9↓ 1.6↓ 1.4↑ 4.1↑ 3.2↑ 4.3↓ 2.0↓ 0.9↑ 3.5↑
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

Surf is the face height at the beach after the swell is filtered for the way Balnakiel Bay faces. Arrows show where the swell and wind are heading. 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 Wednesday 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 west. Swell inside the lit window reaches the beach; anything from behind the headlands scores nothing, however big the buoy says it is.

NESWfaces WWW
W
2.2 m at 11 s (swell) · 100 % reaches the beach
W
1.5 m at 5 s (wind sea) · 100 % reaches the beach

How Balnakiel Bay works

Swell
Best from the north west.
Wind
West is offshore.
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

  • Sun 21:54Low1.5 m
  • Mon 03:34High3.5 m
  • Mon 10:31Low2.2 m
  • Mon 15:50High3.7 m
  • Mon 23:20Low1.2 m
  • Tue 05:03High3.7 m
  • Tue 11:45Low1.9 m
  • Tue 17:07High4.0 m

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

Comments

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

Log in or join to comment.

Nearby