All swimming spots › Conwy, Wales
Can I swim at Llandudno West Shore?
Conwy, 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, 2023 to 2026
45 samples, 2023 to 2026. The highest E. coli count in them was 400 per 100ml, on 27 August 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.
Llandudno West Shore 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.
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
- Conwy, Wales
- Monitored outfalls within 5km
- 20 (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 720m 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. It is tagged as free and as private, as the mappers wrote it.
No toilet, drinking water or cafe is mapped within 500m of here in OpenStreetMap. That is a gap in the map as much as it is a fact about the place.
Getting here without a car
- Nearest bus stop Penmorfa West Shore (o/s White Rabbit), Gloddaeth Avenue, about 800m away
- Nearest railway station Llandudno Rail Station, 1.9 km 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
Situated on the north Wales coastline, below the Great Orme, the bay faces west over Conwy Sands. The beach is long and sandy with a stony pebble foreshore, backed by a concrete promenade. The sea area offshore is designated under the Menai Strait and Conwy Special Area of Conservation, whilst the Great Orme is designated as the Great Orme’s Head Special Area of Conservation. The bathing water also lies in the Aber Afon Conwy Site of Special Scientific Interest. The water quality sample point is located in-line with the north of the paddling pool.
What drains into it
The natural drainage (hydrological) catchment surrounding the bathing water is primarily urban, namely the town of Llandudno, and the limestone outcrop of the Great Orme. The beach lies on the Conwy estuary at the bottom of the Conwy valley. The Conwy Valley extends approximately 25 kilometres inland to Betws-y-Coed, before the main river is joined by a number of key tributaries, e.g. the Lledr, the Machno and the Merddwr. In the lower section below Llanrwst, the Roe and Hiraethlyn are two of the main tributaries, draining agricultural catchments dominated by managed grassland and forestry. The main valley is also dominated by managed grassland and sheep farming, with a number of settlements e.g. Trefriw and Dolgarrog. These are connected to the foul sewer. The valley sides rise more sharply in the middle section of the valley, near Llanrwst, particularly on the west side. Discharges from historic metal mines on the western side impact upon the local rivers. Forestry predominates as the main land use along with some rough grazing. The more upper areas of the catchment beyond Betws-y-Coed are mainly grassland and sheep farming.
More from the profile
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. A major improvement scheme was completed by Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water for Conwy, Deganwy, Llandudno and Colwyn Bay, in 1999. The sewage from the immediate catchment of Llandudno and the aforementioned areas is now pumped to the Ganol Wastewater Treatment Works at Llandudno Junction. The wastewater treatment works discharges disinfected secondary treated effluent through a sea outfall, to the east of Llandudno into Penrhyn Bay. Previous to this work, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water had constructed a long sea outfall at West Shore, to direct sewage away from the bathing area. Associated investigations have identified misconnections and/or leaking sewers. Subsequent remedial works have been carried out and further improvements are planned. During the 2012 bathing season, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water will be replacing the long sea outfall at West Shore.
The council's part
Natural Resources Wales continues to work together with Conwy Council to maintain the high standard of water quality at Llandudno West Shore. Previous to the improvement scheme, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water had constructed a long sea outfall at the West Shore in order to take the sewage away from the shore area. This is being replaced in 2012.
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.
Llandudno West Shore'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 Llandudno West ShoreOr put today’s verdict on your own site.
Put this beach on your own site
A small card showing today’s verdict for Llandudno West Shore, 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.