All swimming spots › King's Lynn and West Norfolk, England
Can I swim at Hunstanton (Old Hunstanton)?
King's Lynn and West Norfolk, England · 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, 2024 to 2026
45 samples, 2024 to 2026. The highest E. coli count in them was 350 per 100ml, on 17 July 2025; 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.
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.
Hunstanton (Old Hunstanton) was rated Good for 2025, the second 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.
The Environment Agency issues a pollution risk forecast each morning during the bathing season for nearly every bathing water in England, and the water company publishes the status of its storm overflows every few minutes.
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
- King's Lynn and West Norfolk, England
- Monitored outfalls within 5km
- 3 (nearest 1.0km)
- 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 the Environment Agency’s 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 250m 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 390m away — free, step-free
- Drinking water about 390m away
- Cliff Top Cafe about 370m away
- Dogs — Dogs are mapped as allowed. Seasonal dog bans are council orders rather than map data, so the sign at the entrance is the authority.
Straight-line distances from OpenStreetMap, not walking distances, and only what volunteers have mapped — something missing here may still be there.
The record since 2024
In 2025, the 1 monitored overflow the Environment Agency lists against this bathing water spilled 14 times, for about 16 hours in total. Over the 2025 bathing season alone, 1 May to 30 September, 6 of those spills happened — 43% of the year.
- 202419 spills · 16 hours
- 202514 spills · 16 hours
These are annual totals for the whole year, not readings from today — today’s answer is the verdict at the top of the page. Figures come from the Environment Agency’s Event Duration Monitoring annual returns, which the water companies submit and the EA publishes, and the EA decides which overflows count as belonging to this bathing water.
What the regulator says about this beach
From the Environment Agency’s published bathing water profile for 2026. It describes the place and its catchment, not today’s water.
The beach itself
Hunstanton is a popular Norfolk coastal holiday resort. The Old Hunstanton beach is at the north end just outside of the town and is a quiet rural beach. The wide sandy beach has a row of colourful beach huts just behind the sand dunes.
What drains into it
There are no rivers or streams close to the beach. This is a sandy beach backed by dunes and cliffs. There are no rivers or streams close to the beach. This is a sandy beach backed by dunes and cliffs. The Wash is the largest estuarine system in the UK. It is recognised as an internationally important site for waders and wildfowl under the Ramsar Convention, particularly in winter as well as during the spring and autumn migration, where it hosts hundreds of thousands of shorebirds. There is also a large population of gulls in the area, present all year round. The area is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a Special Protection Area (SPA).
More from the profile
Where the sewage works discharges
There are no Sewage Treatment Works in Hunstanton itself. The closest Sewage Treatment Works is in neighbouring Heacham, which discharges to a tributary of the Heacham river. Improvements, including Ultra Violet disinfection, were put in place at Heacham Sewage Treatment Works by Anglian Water in 1998. This has been effective in reducing bacteria numbers from the sewage works into the Heacham river system. Heacham Sewage Treatment Works is unlikely to affect the quality of Old Hunstanton bathing water.
What has been done about it
The Environment Agency and Anglian Water have worked closely together to identify and deliver significant investment in the sewerage infrastructure around this bathing water, which has resulted in major improvements in its water quality. Improvements have been carried out to storm, emergency and surface water outfalls and leaking sewers. This has been focused mainly within the town, as contaminated water entering the sea at that location has the potential to affect Old Hunstanton beach. Investigations include using CCTV to identify any problems with the sewerage system. Further investigations were undertaken by Anglian Water which were completed in September 2022, and the results suggest no dominant source of bacteria, but water quality can be affected by birds and overflows within the catchment.
What the samplers see on the sand
Environment Agency samplers make observations of litter present on the beach at every visit, this includes assessments of sewage debris, litter and tar. At Hunstanton (Old Hunstanton) for the four year (2022-2025) assessment period where data is available, sewage debris was not noted at this site. Litter was not assessed as being sufficient to be objectionable, but was observed as being present on 63% of visits. Tarry residue was not assessed as being sufficient to be objectionable, but was observed as being present on 1% of visits.
The council's part
The Environment Agency are continuing to investigate surface water quality and identify any sources of poor quality water which may affect the bathing water. Regular liaison meetings have been held throughout the bathing water season between the Environment Agency, local authority, Anglian Water and other stakeholders to discuss ongoing work and actions.
Published by the Environment Agency 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.
Hunstanton (Old Hunstanton)'s official page at the Environment Agency · 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 Hunstanton (Old Hunstanton)Or put today’s verdict on your own site.
Put this beach on your own site
A small card showing today’s verdict for Hunstanton (Old Hunstanton), 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.