All swimming spots › Gwynedd, Wales
Can I swim at Barmouth?
Gwynedd, Wales · Coastal
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Before you get in
A red flag means do not go in, whatever this page says.
If you get into trouble, float on your back until the cold shock passes. Full advice below.
In an emergency call 999 and ask for the Coastguard, or 112 in the Republic of Ireland.
Water quality today
The last fortnight
What this verdict covers
Independent site, not an official one. This verdict is about water quality. It does not tell you whether the water is safe to get into today.
How it has been rated
The annual classification for 2021 to 2025. Each one is calculated from samples taken over up to four bathing seasons, so these overlap and none of them describes today.
Every sample, 2022 to 2026
45 samples, 2022 to 2026. The highest E. coli count in them was 660 per 100ml, on 1 August 2023; the standard for Excellent is 250 or below and for Good 500 or below.
One bar for each sample, oldest on the left. The taller the bar, the more E. coli that bottle held.
The scale is the same on every beach on this site, which is why a clean beach looks flat — the bars are measured against the standard rather than against that beach’s own worst day. Hover or tap a bar for that day’s figures. A single count over a line is not a failed beach. The classification is worked out as the 90th and 95th percentile of four years of samples, so one bad morning does not decide it — and one good morning does not either. 2 of these are above the Good standard, so they are pinned to the top with a notch rather than the chart stretching to fit them.
What these bacteria mean for you
Neither one is what makes people ill by itself. They are markers: they live in the gut, so finding them means sewage or animal waste has reached the water, and whatever else came with it is likely there too.
The usual way to catch something is swallowing the water, and the usual result is a stomach upset. Ear, eye, chest and skin infections are the other common ones. Putting your head under and swimming with an open cut both raise the odds.
The riskiest time is the day or two after heavy rain, when storm overflows discharge and rain washes off farmland — including at beaches rated Excellent for the rest of the season. That is the whole reason this page shows you rainfall and discharges alongside the grade.
Barmouth was rated Excellent for 2025, the highest of the four grades in the Bathing Water Regulations. That grade comes from bacterial samples taken over several seasons, so it describes the beach's record rather than the water on any given day.
Natural Resources Wales issues a daily pollution risk forecast during the bathing season for 15 of Wales's 114 bathing waters, and Dŵr Cymru publishes live storm overflow status.
The regulator records this as a bathing water whose quality can be affected by heavy rain, which is why rainfall in the last 24 hours is shown above.
The rest of its file
What the regulator holds for this place. None of it describes the water today.
- Water
- Coastal
- Area
- Gwynedd, Wales
- Monitored outfalls within 5km
- 13 (nearest 0.6km)
- Affected by heavy rain
- Yes, per the regulator
Sea, wind, tide and weather
The sea and the weather here today and for the week ahead. Not the water quality verdict above.
Today
Rain, the week behind and ahead
The weather for the week ahead
Where it is, and what discharges near it
Directions to this bathing water
That is Natural Resources Wales’ sampling point, which is at the water rather than at a car park. Your maps app will take you to the nearest road it can reach.
The nearest mapped car park is about 160m away in a straight line. That is not a walking distance: OpenStreetMap knows where the car park is and nothing about the path, which may be longer, steeper or not there at all.
What is mapped at this beach
- Toilets about 340m away — free, step-free, hours as mapped: Mo-Su 08:00-20:00
- A cafe about 390m away
Straight-line distances from OpenStreetMap, not walking distances, and only what volunteers have mapped — something missing here may still be there.
Getting here without a car
- Nearest bus stop North Avenue (o/s Arbour Hotel), Marine Parade, about 90m away
- Nearest railway station Barmouth Rail Station, about 360m away
Straight-line distances to where the stop or station is, from the national registers of them. That a stop exists is not a promise that a bus calls at it — timetables are somebody else’s data and this page does not read them, so check the operator before you rely on it.
What the regulator says about this beach
From Natural Resources Wales’s published bathing water profile for 2014. It describes the place and its catchment, not today’s water — and this profile is 2014, so treat the history and the works described in it as that old.
The beach itself
The long sandy beach is situated below a rocky outcrop on the north bank of the Mawddach Estuary, with the seaside village of Fairbourne situated on the opposite south bank. The bathing water lies within the Lleyn Peninsula and the Sarnau Special Area of Conservation. To the south of the beach is the Mawddach Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest, whilst the hillside behind the beach is designated as the Barmouth Hillside Site of Special Scientific Interest. The water quality sample point is located opposite the North Avenue by the Marwyn Hotel.
What drains into it
The natural drainage (hydrological) catchment is generally rural, apart from the small coastal town of Barmouth. The beach is backed by steep hills on the north bank of the Mawddach Estuary. There are several camp sites within the Mawddach catchment, with numerous large caravan sites to the south, between Llwyngwril and Fairbourne, and to the north between Barmouth and Dyffryn Ardudwy. Water quality can potentially be influenced by agriculture within the Mawddach catchment and sheep grazing on the salt marshes in the Mawddach Estuary.
More from the profile
Where the sewage works discharges
The Sewage Treatment Plant at Barmouth has been upgraded with a membrane bio-reactor treatment plant, which better protects the quality of the bathing water.
What has been done about it
Natural Resources Wales has developed a good working relationship with Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water and liaises regularly to identify problems that could affect bathing water quality. Natural Resources Wales and Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water have been investigating contaminated surface water drains and have undertaken a sewage system survey to locate misconnections.
The council's part
Natural Resources Wales and Gwynedd Council have been working together to improve the bathing water quality at Barmouth for a number of years. This includes tracing the sources of pollution from household toilet and utility misconnections to the private and public surface water system that is discharging ultimately into coastal waters.
Published by Natural Resources Wales under the Open Government Licence. The full profile carries more, including sections repeated for every beach that are not reproduced here.
Other swimming spots nearby
The closest bathing waters on the regulators’ lists, straight-line distance. Each has its own checks and its own verdict.
Check the official source
The regulator’s own page for this bathing water. If it disagrees with this one, believe theirs.
Barmouth's official page at Natural Resources Wales · See it on a map
This page is not official. It reads published data and presents it plainly; if a sign at the beach says otherwise, believe the sign.
If you get into trouble
This is the RNLI’s advice, not ours.
Float. Tilt your head back with your ears in the water. Relax and let your breathing settle. Move your hands and legs gently to stay level. Your legs may sink, and that is fine, everyone floats differently. The first shock of cold water passes in less than a minute, so do not try to swim straight away. Once it has passed, call for help or swim to safety.
Caught in a rip current? Do not swim against it, you will only tire yourself out. If you can stand, wade out of it. If the water is too deep to stand, swim parallel to the beach until you are clear of it, then head for shore. Raise your hand and shout for help.
Nobody publishes a rip current forecast for beaches in Britain or Ireland, so this site cannot show you one. The RNLI has one for its own lifeguards. The public does not. Look at the water before you get in, and look for a channel where the waves are not breaking.
In an emergency call 999 and ask for the Coastguard. In the Republic of Ireland call 112 or 999 and ask for the Coast Guard.
Where there are lifeguards, swim between the red and yellow flags. They put those flags where it is safest that day and move them as the sea changes. A red flag means do not go in, whatever this page says. An orange windsock means the wind is blowing offshore and inflatables should stay out of the water. Most places on this site have no lifeguard at all.
This advice is the RNLI’s. Their Float to Live pages are worth two minutes of anyone’s time.
Use this page elsewhere
One sheet of A4 with a QR code to this page, for a clubhouse, a campsite reception, a surf school or a harbour office. The address is printed underneath in words, so it still works for anybody who would rather not scan a code.
Print a sign for BarmouthOr put today’s verdict on your own site.
Put this beach on your own site
A small card showing today’s verdict for Barmouth, updating itself. Paste this where you want it to appear. It loads nothing of yours and sets no cookies, and it costs your visitors about ten kilobytes, most of it the readings themselves.
Click the box to select it all. There is also a feed for this beach, if you would rather be told than have to look.