All swimming spots › Cornwall, England
Can I swim at Northcott Mouth?
Cornwall, 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, 2023 to 2026
45 samples, 2023 to 2026. The highest E. coli count in them was 120 per 100ml, on 6 July 2024; 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.
Northcott Mouth 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.
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 rest of its file
What the regulator holds for this place. None of it describes the water today.
- Water
- Coastal
- Area
- Cornwall, England
- Monitored outfalls within 5km
- 9 (nearest 1.4km)
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
Lifeguards
The RNLI has a lifeguard unit at this beach.
They do not patrol all year, and this page cannot tell you whether anyone is on duty today. RNLI page for this beach.
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 310m away in a straight line (Northcott Mouth). 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, as the mappers wrote it.
What is mapped at this beach
- Sip and Sea about 290m away
Straight-line distances from OpenStreetMap, not walking distances, and only what volunteers have mapped — something missing here may still be there.
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
Northcott Mouth is on the north coast of Cornwall. It is a small rocky beach, approximately 350 metres wide, with a small stream flowing on to it. At low tide many rock pools are exposed.
What drains into it
The catchment surrounding Northcott Mouth is approximately 450 hectares. The catchment comprises mainly of arable farmland. The Northcott Stream is approximately 3 kilometres long and flows onto the beach. Northcott Mouth lies within the Duckpool to Furzy Island Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Hartland Point to Tintagel Marine Conservations Zone (MCZ).
More from the profile
Where the sewage works discharges
The outfall from Bude STW discharges into the sea off Compass Point approximately two and a half kilometres southwest of Northcott Mouth bathing water. This discharge is designed to protect bathing water quality.
What has been done about it
In the past sewage at Bude was discharged without treatment through a short outfall off Compass Point. The South West Water sewage treatment scheme for Bude, which provides primary treatment and a one kilometre long sea outfall, was completed in 1993. The Bude sewage treatment works (STW) was upgraded with secondary treatment by the end of 2000. Improvements to the combined storm overflow (CSO) at Stratton pumping station were also completed at that time. In recent years the Environment Agency has worked extensively with South West Water to identify and rectify issues with bacterial contamination of the River Strat from degraded sewers in Bude. Storm overflow event duration monitoring (EDM) was installed at Crooklets Car Park by December 2011 and a sewage leak to Flex Brook was fixed. Storm overflow event duration monitoring (EDM) was installed at The Strand, Nanny Moores, Summerleaze Car Park, and at the Stratton and Castle pumping stations by April 2011. EDM was installed at the Barn Orchard Cottages pumping station in March 2016. EDM is to be installed at Broadclose Farm CSO by September 2021. Improvements to 7 emergency/storm overflows within the nearby Summerleaze and Crooklets bathing water catchments are due for completion by September 2022.
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 Northcott Mouth 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 52% of visits. Tarry residue was not noted at this site.
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.
Northcott Mouth'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 Northcott MouthOr put today’s verdict on your own site.
Put this beach on your own site
A small card showing today’s verdict for Northcott Mouth, 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.