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Dunnet Bay

★★★★★Small
Reef break Faces NW all tides Offshore South East Best swell North West

Best of the week: Monday around 15:00, 6–8 ft and offshore.

Surf now1–2ft2.1 m at 12 s from the NE, wind sea 0.4 m from the NW
Wind19mphNW · onshore · gusts 33
Tide 2.0mRising · high 08:33 (4.2 m). Works all tides.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sun
6–8 ft Swell W 7s Wind 39 mph ★★★★★
Mon
6–8 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 19 mph ★★★★★
Tue
6–8 ft Swell W 8s Wind 23 mph ★★★★★
Wed
8–11 ft Swell W 9s Wind 12 mph ★★★★★
Thu
5–7 ft Swell NW 7s Wind 7 mph ★★★★★
Fri
1–2 ft Swell W 8s Wind 15 mph ★★★★★
Sat
4–6 ft Swell W 9s Wind 9 mph ★★★★★
Sun 25 Mon 26 Tue 27 Wed 28 Thu 29 Fri 30 Sat 31
Time 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 06 09 12 15 18
Surf ft 4–6 7–10 18–24 37–48 36–48 11–15 9–12 7–10 6–8 4–6 0 0 2–3 6–9 18–23 8–11 8–11 9–12 7–10 8–11 5–8 5–7 4–6 3–4 3–4 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 2–4 3–5 4–5 4–5 4–6
Swell 12s 10s 10s 12s 12s 11s 9s 9s 9s 9s 9s 4s 6s 8s 10s 9s 9s 9s 7s 9s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 8s 9s 4s 3s 9s 8s 10s 5s 8s 9s
Wind mph 17 37 42 42 42 13 11 11 19 23 22 32 28 28 23 11 13 16 14 10 7 7 13 9 9 15 17 18 15 11 5 3 11 11 9
Tide m 3.2↑ 4.2↓ 2.2↓ 1.3↑ 3.2↑ 2.7↑ 4.3↑ 2.6↓ 1.0↑ 2.7↑ 2.2↑ 4.3↑ 3.2↓ 1.0↓ 2.1↑ 1.8↑ 4.0↑ 3.7↓ 1.3↓ 1.6↑ 1.5↑ 3.6↑ 4.1↓ 1.8↓ 1.3↑ 1.4↑ 3.1↑ 4.2↓ 2.6↓ – – – – – –
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

Surf is the face height at the beach after the swell is filtered for the way Dunnet 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 Gills Bay 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

Dunnet Bay faces north-west. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from W round to NW; 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 NWNENW
NE
2.1 m at 12 s (swell) · 5 % reaches the beach
NW
0.4 m at 3 s (wind sea) · 100 % reaches the beach

How Dunnet 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
Dunnet is between Thurso ans John o Groats on the a836

Miles of NW facing Beaches Picks up most swell in the area but easily effected by W winds.. Look for the secrect reef around here.

Tide times

  • Sun 08:33High4.2 m
  • Sun 14:13Low1.2 m
  • Sun 20:38High4.3 m
  • Mon 02:28Low0.8 m
  • Mon 09:08High4.3 m
  • Mon 14:48Low1.0 m
  • Mon 21:17High4.4 m
  • Tue 03:03Low0.8 m

Gills Bay station, 11 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
Sand dunes, Dunnet Bay - geograph.org.uk - 2379116 Waves on Dunnet Beach - geograph.org.uk - 3596237

Paul E Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Bill Boaden, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Comments

1 Jan 2010 · eightlegged A lot more mellow than it's sister break across the river. Holds a mellow left and a quite full on right. can be hard to get the tide right as it works on Low-mid through to Mid-High.. hard window to catch!

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