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Bay of Skaill

★★★★★Fair
Beach break Faces W all tides Offshore east Best swell west

Best of the week: Monday around 17:00, 6–8 ft and offshore.

Surf now4–6ft1.2 m at 11 s from the W, wind sea 1.5 m from the S
Wind21mphS · cross-on · gusts 33
Tide 3.3mRising · high 20:49 (3.5 m). Works all tides.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sat
4–6 ft Swell S 4s Wind 21 mph ★★★★★
Sun
12–16 ft Swell W 12s Wind 8 mph ★★★★★
Mon
6–8 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 21 mph ★★★★★
Tue
8–11 ft Swell SW 6s Wind 32 mph ★★★★★
Wed
17–23 ft Swell W 9s Wind 31 mph ★★★★★
Thu
6–8 ft Swell NW 7s Wind 12 mph ★★★★★
Fri
3–5 ft Swell W 10s Wind 5 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 4–6 9–12 8–11 17–22 36–47 32–42 14–18 10–14 8–11 7–9 5–7 3–5 6–9 13–18 23–30 31–41 17–23 15–20 14–19 12–16 10–14 7–10 6–8 5–8 5–7 4–5 3–5 3–5 3–5 3–5 3–5
Swell 4s 14s 13s 10s 12s 12s 10s 9s 9s 9s 9s 4s 5s 8s 10s 11s 9s 9s 10s 8s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 8s 9s 9s 10s 10s
Wind mph 21 19 20 27 36 44 29 17 13 15 22 17 32 31 41 39 31 27 23 18 20 14 9 14 16 17 18 15 12 8 5
Tide m 3.0↑ 2.7↑ 3.4↓ 1.7↓ 1.0↑ 2.8↑ 2.4↑ 3.6↓ 2.1↓ 0.8↑ 2.4↑ 2.0↑ 3.7↑ 2.5↓ 0.7↓ 1.9↑ 1.5↑ 3.5↑ 3.0↓ 0.9↓ 1.3↑ 1.2↑ 3.1↑ 3.3↓ 1.4↓ 1.0↑ 1.2↑ 2.6↑ 3.4↓ 2.0↓ –
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

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

Bay of Skaill faces west. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from S 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 WWS
W
1.2 m at 11 s (swell) · 100 % reaches the beach
S
1.5 m at 4 s (wind sea) · 50 % reaches the beach

How Bay of Skaill works

Swell
Best from the west.
Wind
Offshore is from the east; anything with west in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
all tides.

Orkney's main surf beach, beside Skara Brae.

Tide times

  • Sat 20:49High3.5 m
  • Sun 01:57Low0.7 m
  • Sun 08:19High3.5 m
  • Sun 14:09Low0.9 m
  • Sun 20:23High3.7 m
  • Mon 02:32Low0.6 m
  • Mon 08:50High3.6 m
  • Mon 14:46Low0.8 m

Stromness station, 10 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
Sandwick Bay of Skaill coast next to Skara Brae 3 Beach on the Bay of Skaill - geograph.org.uk - 7397264

Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. David Medcalf, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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Nearby

No other breaks within 40 km on the guide.