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Murkle Point

★★★★★Good
Reef break Faces NW mid to high tide Offshore south-east Best swell North West

Best of the week: today around 11:00, 7–10 ft and cross-off.

Surf now6–8ft2.3 m at 8 s from the NW, wind sea 0.6 m from the W
Wind11mphSW · cross-off · gusts 18
Tide 3.6mFalling · low 04:58 (1.7 m). Works mid to high tide.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sat
7–10 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 15 mph ★★★★★
Sun
13–17 ft Swell NW 13s Wind 17 mph ★★★★★
Mon
10–14 ft Swell N 9s Wind 10 mph ★★★★★
Tue
4–6 ft Swell N 7s Wind 9 mph ★★★★★
Wed
3–4 ft Swell N 9s Wind 12 mph ★★★★★
Thu
3–4 ft Swell N 8s Wind 7 mph ★★★★★
Sat 14 Sun 15 Mon 16 Tue 17 Wed 18 Thu 19
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
Surf ft 7–9 7–9 7–10 7–10 6–9 13–17 11–15 10–14 9–13 8–11 11–15 10–14 9–12 7–10 6–8 5–8 5–7 4–6 4–5 4–5 3–4 2–3 2–3 2–4 3–4 3–4 3–4 2–4 2–3 2–3
Swell 8s 9s 9s 9s 9s 13s 12s 12s 11s 11s 10s 10s 9s 9s 9s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 6s 7s 9s 9s 9s 8s 9s 9s 9s 8s
Wind mph 11 13 15 11 12 17 13 12 9 10 13 20 19 12 10 9 8 10 10 9 15 12 13 12 12 7 6 5 3 1
Tide m 1.8↑ 3.4↑ 4.0↓ 2.5↓ 1.6↑ 1.9↑ 3.0↑ 3.8↑ 2.9↓ 1.8↓ 2.1↓ 2.6↑ 3.6↑ 3.3↓ 2.1↓ 2.5↓ 2.4↑ 3.3↑ 3.5↓ 2.5↓ 2.9↓ 2.3↓ 2.9↑ 3.6↑ 3.0↓ 3.3↓ 2.3↓ 2.4↑ 3.5↑ 3.4↓
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

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

Murkle Point faces north-west. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from W 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 NWNWW
NW
2.3 m at 8 s (swell) · 100 % reaches the beach
W
0.6 m at 4 s (wind sea) · 17 % reaches the beach

How Murkle Point 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
mid to high tide.
Getting there
Drive towards lands end from Thurso... Head for murkle Bay... befor dunnet head

Left hand Reef Break.. Works best on mid -high tide

Tide times

  • Sat 04:58Low1.7 m
  • Sat 11:16High4.0 m
  • Sat 17:36Low1.6 m
  • Sat 23:48High3.6 m
  • Sun 05:38Low1.9 m
  • Sun 12:01High3.8 m
  • Sun 18:26Low1.8 m
  • Mon 00:47High3.4 m

Scrabster station, 7 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
North eastern part of The Spur at Dunnet Bay - geograph.org.uk - 5438951 View to Murkle Bay - geograph.org.uk - 6774311

John Ferguson, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. thejackrustles, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Comments

2 Jan 2005 · kmb I think you mean drive towards John'O Groats from Thurso. Murkle is sign posted on the left before getting to Castletown

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