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Bamburgh

★★★★★Fair
River mouth Faces NE all tides Offshore South West Best swell North East
Surf now1–2ft1.8 m at 7 s from the SE, wind sea 0.4 m from the S
Wind15mphW · offshore · gusts 23
Tide 1.1mFalling · low 20:06 (1.1 m). Works all tides.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sat
1–2 ft Swell SE 7s Wind 15 mph ★★★★★
Sun
2–3 ft Swell NW 6s Wind 37 mph ★★★★★
Mon
1–2 ft Swell N 8s Wind 10 mph ★★★★★
Tue
1–2 ft Swell SE 8s Wind 22 mph ★★★★★
Wed
0 ft Swell SW 3s Wind 11 mph ★★★★★
Thu
0–1 ft Swell NW 3s Wind 6 mph ★★★★★
Fri
1–2 ft Swell S 2s Wind 7 mph ★★★★★
Sat 24 Sun 25 Mon 26 Tue 27 Wed 28 Thu 29 Fri 30
Time 19 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 1–2 1–2 0–1 2–3 2–3 0–1 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 0–1 0–1 1–2 0 0 0 0 0 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1
Swell 7s 4s 5s 6s 6s 5s 8s 9s 3s 5s 7s 8s 8s 3s 3s 7s 3s 3s 3s 2s 2s 3s 3s 2s 6s 5s 5s 5s 2s 2s 2s
Wind mph 15 37 37 37 37 30 10 8 12 20 15 22 27 27 24 18 11 14 14 15 14 7 6 11 12 12 14 11 9 7 7
Tide m 1.4↓ 1.3↓ 1.2↑ 3.9↑ 4.5↓ 1.7↓ 1.8↓ 0.8↑ 3.5↑ 4.9↓ 2.3↓ 2.5↓ 0.6↑ 2.8↑ 5.0↑ 3.0↓ 3.4↓ 0.7↓ 2.2↑ 4.8↑ 3.7↓ 4.1↓ 1.2↓ 1.6↑ 4.3↑ 4.3↓ 4.6↓ 2.0↓ 1.4↑ 3.7↑ 4.6↓
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

Surf is the face height at the beach after the swell is filtered for the way Bamburgh faces. Arrows point to where the swell and wind come from: an arrow pointing up means from the north. Tide is the height at Holy Island 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

Bamburgh faces north-east. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from N round to E; 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 NESES
SE
1.8 m at 7 s (swell) · 24 % reaches the beach
S
0.4 m at 3 s (wind sea) · blocked, 0 %

How Bamburgh works

Swell
Best from the north east.
Wind
Offshore is from the south west; anything with north-east in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
all tides.
Getting there
Drive up/ down the A1 heading for Alnwick. Follow signs for Seahouses. Bamburgh is north of seahouses. Head for bamburgh golf course and watch out for a car park. You will have a great view of the castle if youre in the right place.

Probably the most consistent wave in Northumberland. Situated just north of the Farne Isles Bamburgh works on Northerly and Easterly Swells, but due to the swell being predominantly northerly in these parts, works most of the time there is a swell. Farne Isles seem to work as some sort of channel for the northerly sometimes here, and as such it can sometimes be a foot or two bigger than, for example, tynemouth, which faces a bit more east. The Break itself is mostly a beach break, but at certain times there can seem to be a left hander breaking off the rocky headland at the north end of the beach. This rarely works well, so best just to paddle straight out from the Wynding car park and surf the usually pretty decent sand bar right there. Watch out for the interesting looking sand bar about a mile south past the castle (getting towards the Watchtower, also listed on here). There is a massive rip runs off the end of it which goes stright out to the farne isles..... not much fun to paddle against. So in summary- a good beach break which can have most kinds of wave depending on tide and wind. Not a very steep beach, so pretty consistent and works on all tides.

Tide times

  • Sat 20:06Low1.1 m
  • Sun 01:24High4.8 m
  • Sun 07:29Low0.7 m
  • Sun 13:58High4.8 m
  • Sun 19:43Low0.9 m
  • Mon 02:01High5.0 m
  • Mon 08:07Low0.6 m
  • Mon 14:32High5.0 m

Holy Island station, 6 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
Beach and rocks, Budle Bay - geograph.org.uk - 7604810 Beach and rocks, Budle Bay - geograph.org.uk - 7604808

Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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