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Murkle Point

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

Best of the week: Thursday around 08:00, 5–8 ft and offshore.

Surf now3–4ft1.0 m at 11 s from the NW, wind sea 0.3 m from the S
Wind15mphSE · offshore · gusts 24
Tide 4.3mFalling · low 01:35 (0.8 m). Works mid to high tide.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sat
3–4 ft Swell NW 11s Wind 15 mph ★★★★★
Sun
7–9 ft Swell W 7s Wind 13 mph ★★★★★
Mon
5–7 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 21 mph ★★★★★
Tue
2–3 ft Swell NW 10s Wind 20 mph ★★★★★
Wed
8–11 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 11 mph ★★★★★
Thu
5–8 ft Swell NW 7s Wind 8 mph ★★★★★
Fri
2–3 ft Swell W 10s Wind 6 mph ★★★★★
Sat 24 Sun 25 Mon 26 Tue 27 Wed 28 Thu 29 Fri 30
Time 21 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 3–4 5–7 5–7 20–27 37–48 37–48 12–16 9–12 7–10 6–8 4–6 2–3 1–2 0–1 5–8 15–20 9–12 9–12 10–14 7–10 8–11 6–8 5–7 5–7 4–5 3–4 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–3
Swell 11s 14s 6s 10s 12s 12s 10s 9s 9s 9s 9s 10s 4s 5s 8s 9s 8s 7s 9s 7s 6s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 8s 9s 9s 10s 10s
Wind mph 15 20 17 33 38 40 9 12 9 14 23 20 32 28 30 24 15 13 13 15 11 10 8 16 14 17 15 11 7 6 5
Tide m 4.4↓ 3.9↑ 4.2↓ 1.9↓ 1.4↑ 3.9↑ 3.4↑ 4.6↓ 2.3↓ 0.9↑ 3.4↑ 2.8↑ 4.8↓ 2.9↓ 0.8↓ 2.6↑ 2.1↑ 4.7↑ 3.6↓ 1.0↓ 1.8↑ 1.6↑ 4.2↑ 4.1↓ 1.5↓ 1.3↑ 1.3↑ 3.6↑ 4.3↓ 2.2↓ 1.1↑
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 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

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 NWNWS
NW
1.0 m at 11 s (swell) · 100 % reaches the beach
S
0.3 m at 2 s (wind sea) · 0 % 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

  • Sun 01:35Low0.8 m
  • Sun 07:45High4.6 m
  • Sun 13:56Low1.1 m
  • Sun 19:54High4.8 m
  • Mon 02:12Low0.6 m
  • Mon 08:21High4.7 m
  • Mon 14:34Low0.9 m
  • Mon 20:33High4.9 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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