Norfolk Tide Times
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Planning a day out on the North Norfolk coast

On most coasts the tide decides how far you walk. On this one it decides whether the day happens at all.

North Norfolk is a coast of tidal creeks and saltmarsh rather than open beach with a road along it. The water reaches most of these places through a winding channel, and those channels dry. A staithe that is full of boats at eleven can be mud by three, and the same quay that a seal trip leaves from is unreachable by water for much of the day.

Which is a strange thing to plan around, because it means the question is not really where to go. Six of these seven places are two different places depending on when you arrive, and the difference is not a matter of degree — it is the difference between a harbour and a field of mud, or between a mile of open sand and no beach at all.

So the useful thing to know first is not a tide time. It is which of two kinds of place you are going to, because that determines which end of the tide you want.

Two kinds of place

Five of the seven

Creeks and staithes

Burnham Overy Staithe, Brancaster Staithe, Blakeney, Morston and Wells. The water arrives by a channel that dries. Boats float, trips sail and creeks fill on the hours either side of high water.

The other two

Open sand

Holkham and Hunstanton. Nothing needs to float, so the tide governs how much ground there is. Low water is what opens these two up, and the flood is what closes them again.

Every time on this site is published as a window rather than a single minute, because a single minute is more precision than tide prediction can honestly offer. The windows differ by location, and two of the seven have no tidal station at all — their times are reasoned across from a neighbour, and the page says so.

The creek places

Five of the seven sit at the head of a channel rather than on the open shore. The sea reaches them by a winding route through saltmarsh, and that route dries. These are the places where a staithe full of boats at eleven is a field of mud by three, and where the high-water window is not a detail of the day but the shape of it.

  • Burnham Overy Staithe

    Creek to Scolt Head

    The staithe dries to mud at low water and fills again on the flood, which is why the dinghies, kayaks and paddleboards here work to the tide rather than to the clock. On the water it is the busiest of the five, and the traffic thins out to nothing in the hours either side of low. Scolt Head Island lies across the channel, and the tide closes that crossing — the location page sets out when.

    Overy Creek full of water under a clear sky, with a dinghy under outboard heading down the channel past moored boats lying at anchor, saltmarsh flat and green on either side.

    High water

    The same creek at low water on a grey day, reduced to a narrow ribbon between banks of mud, with a blue and white boat lying over on its bilge and yachts standing upright on the hard sand behind.

    Low water

    Overy Creek at high water and at low water. The dinghies, kayaks and paddleboards that launch here work to the first picture. Photographs of Burnham Overy Staithe: Boat approaching Burnham Overy by Hugh Venables · Overy Creek, Low Tide by Colin Smith · CC BY-SA 2.0

    Nearby: The Hero, Burnham Overy Island Ferry.

    Burnham Overy Staithe tide times · ±30 min window

  • Wells-next-the-Sea

    The harbour channel

    A working harbour with a long channel between the quay and open sea, so keelboats and trip boats move on the high-water window rather than whenever suits. The quay stays a quay all day — this is the one location on the list where the tide does not decide whether there is anything to do — but what is afloat in front of it changes completely. It is also the only location on this site with a tide gauge, which makes its timing the one figure here that has been calibrated against measurement rather than reasoned.

    Wells harbour channel at dusk brimming with water, gulls over the surface, the quay and the tall granary with its gantry standing in silhouette against a pale sky.

    High water

    The same channel on an overcast day with the water withdrawn to a central strip, fishing boats tied along the quay wall sitting low, and moored craft beyond resting on exposed banks of mud.

    Low water

    The same view down the harbour channel at Wells, full and empty. Keelboats and trip boats move on the first. Photographs of Wells-next-the-Sea: Wells-next-the-Sea harbour at full tide by Trevor Wright · Harbour, Wells-Next-the-Sea by Ian Lavender · CC BY-SA 2.0

    Nearby: The Globe Inn, The Crown Hotel.

    Wells-next-the-Sea tide times · ±30 min window

  • Brancaster Staithe

    Mussel beds & the harbour

    The channel runs out past the mussel beds toward Scolt Head, and this is a working harbour as much as a sailing one. At low water the route to the quay narrows to a trickle marked by withies pushed into the mud; on the flood it is deep enough to take the fishing boats back in. Boats and crabbing key off the same high-water window, and the car park is the detail the location page picks up.

    Brancaster Staithe with the tide in: rowing boats and fishing boats afloat on flat blue water right up to a shingle spit, people standing at the water’s edge in the sun.

    High water

    The channel to Brancaster Staithe at low water, cut down to a shallow trickle winding between banks of mud and shell, with boats sitting aground in the distance.

    Low water

    The channel out past the mussel beds, and the same channel at low water. The photographer’s note records that its route is marked by withies — willow branches pushed into the mud. Photographs of Brancaster Staithe: High tide at Brancaster Staithe by John Brightley · Low water channel by Bob Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0

    Nearby: The White Horse, Marshside.

    Brancaster Staithe tide times · ±30 min window

  • Blakeney

    The Glaven channel

    The Glaven channel winds down through saltmarsh toward Blakeney Point, and the small boats moored along it float only near high water. Seal trips run from the quay here, which is why the sailing times move through the day rather than staying put. What a big spring tide does to that quay is recorded on the location page.

    Blakeney at high tide, the harbour a broad sheet of water reaching the quay, with the village roofs and moored boats along the far side under a blue sky.

    High water

    Blakeney at low water, small boats and dinghies standing on drying mud beside old timber staging, with a thin curve of remaining water threading away through the saltmarsh.

    Low water

    Blakeney harbour full, and the same harbour drained back to its creek. The boats moored along the Glaven float only near the top of the tide. Photographs of Blakeney: Blakeney at high tide by Trevor Wright · Low tide at Blakeney by Steve Fareham · CC BY-SA 2.0

    Nearby: The White Horse, The Kings Arms.

    Blakeney tide times · ±30 min window

  • Morston

    Quay for the Point

    Morston Quay is where most of the Blakeney Point seal boats actually leave from, and the creek serving it dries, so sailings are set by the tide rather than by the hour. Its landing stages stand on legs for a reason: at the bottom of a spring tide the water is a long way below the boards. There is no tidal station at Morston of any kind — its timing is reasoned across from Blakeney, a short way up the same harbour.

    A loaded seal-trip boat under way down Morston Creek with passengers aboard in lifejackets, water high against the staging, cars parked along the quay behind.

    High water

    A weathered wooden landing stage at Morston standing on its legs above bare mud at low water, its steps and gangway ending over dried creek bed with no water beneath.

    Low water

    A seal trip leaving Morston, and one of the quay’s landing stages at low water. The photographer titled the second one “Landing stage - to thin air”. Photographs of Morston: Boats on Morston Creek by Gareth James · Landing stage - to thin air by Bob Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0

    Nearby: The Anchor Inn, Temple's Seal Trips.

    Morston tide times · ±30 min window

The open sand

The other two work the other way round. Here the tide does not decide whether you can float — it decides how much beach exists. Low water is the event: it is what opens the ground up and hands over the distances these two places are known for. The flood is what takes them back.

  • Holkham Beach

    Gap, pines & vast sands

    Holkham Gap opens through the pines onto sand that runs out for a long way at low water, across ground flat enough that the channels behind you fill as the flood comes in. The distance between the pines and the sea is the thing people come for, and it is a distance that only exists for part of the day. There is no tidal station here either, which is why the window on the Holkham page is wider than the rest of the site at ±40 minutes.

    Holkham beach on a big ebb tide: ripples of wet sand running to the horizon with a shallow sheet of water lying across them and a distant sandbank under a wide sky.

    Low water

    Holkham on a large ebb. There is no companion picture at high water because there is nothing to photograph — the sand in this frame is under the sea. Photographs of Holkham Beach: Holkham Beach during a large ebb tide by Evelyn Simak · CC BY-SA 2.0

    Nearby: The Victoria Inn, Holkham Hall estate.

    Holkham Beach tide times · ±40 min window

  • Hunstanton

    Striped cliffs, west-facing

    The coast turns the corner into The Wash here, which is why Hunstanton faces west and is the one town on this side of the country that watches the sun set over the sea. The banded chalk and carrstone cliffs are the other reason people come, and how close you can get to them depends on where the tide is. The Wash does not behave like the North Norfolk creeks — the location page is blunt about that.

    The banded red and white cliffs at Hunstanton with the sea right up against them, waves breaking along a narrow strip of shingle where a few people are walking.

    High water

    The Wash at low water off Hunstanton, an immense flat of rippled wet sand reaching to the horizon, with two tiny distant figures giving the only sense of scale.

    Low water

    The striped cliffs with the sea against them, and The Wash at low water. The two specks in the second picture are people. Photographs of Hunstanton: High tide at Hunstanton cliffs by Richard Humphrey · Low tide, Hunstanton beach by Robin Webster · CC BY-SA 2.0

    Nearby: Hunstanton Watersports, Searles Leisure Resort.

    Hunstanton tide times · ±40 min window

Questions the tide answers

Why do the seal trips leave at a different time every day?
Because they are timed off high water, and high water is not timed off the clock. There are two high waters a day and each is roughly fifty minutes later than the one before, so a sailing that goes at ten this morning goes at getting on for eleven tomorrow. The creek at Morston dries; the boats need water under them to reach the Point at all. See the Morston times
When is Holkham beach at its biggest?
At low water, and the difference is not marginal — this is the location where the tide governs how much beach exists rather than whether the boats float. Holkham has no tidal station of its own, so its times are reasoned rather than measured, and the window here is the widest on the site at ±40 minutes. See the Holkham Beach times
Can you get out to Blakeney Point?
By boat, yes, and that is the part the tide governs: the trips run from Morston Quay and from Blakeney, and they sail on the high-water window because the channels serving both dry out. Anything on foot is a question about ground and distance rather than about tide tables, and this site has no basis for answering it — the Blakeney page’s “Dangers here” section is the sourced place to look. See the Blakeney times
Which of the seven is worth a visit at low water?
Holkham and Hunstanton, where low water is the whole point. At the five creek locations low water is when the boats are aground and the channel is mud — which some people come specifically to see, and which is the state most of these places spend most of the day in.
Do these times work for the whole North Norfolk coast?
No, and the differences are larger than they look for a coast this short. Each location has its own offset and its own confidence window, and two of the seven have no tidal station at all, so their times are reasoned across from a neighbour rather than measured. Each page shows which it is.

Before you go

Each location page carries a “Dangers here” section specific to that place, with a source against every claim. They are worth reading rather than skimming: what the tide does at Holkham is not what it does at Blakeney, and the locations where getting it wrong is most serious are not the ones that look most dramatic.

These are predictions of the astronomical tide. They cannot know what the weather is doing, and wind, pressure and surge all move real water. How these times are worked out.