All swimming spots › North Devon, England
Can I swim at Saunton Sands?
North Devon, 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 320 per 100ml, on 10 September 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.
Saunton Sands 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
- North Devon, England
- Monitored outfalls within 5km
- 6 (nearest 2.3km)
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. It is tagged as for customers of a business, as the mappers wrote it.
What is mapped at this beach
- Toilets about 170m away — free
- A cafe about 140m 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 Saunton Sands Hotel (W-bound), Saunton Road, about 260m 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 the Environment Agency’s published bathing water profile for 2026. It describes the place and its catchment, not today’s water.
The beach itself
Saunton Sands bathing water is on the north coast of Devon. It is a sandy beach resort backed by sand dunes. The beach is approximately four kilometres wide. The Taw/Torridge Estuary enters the sea at the southern end of the beach.
What drains into it
The catchment surrounding Saunton Sands is approximately 105 hectares. The Saunton Stream is approximately half a kilometre long and is channelled underground at the beach car park. The Taw/Torridge Estuary enters the sea at the southern end of Saunton Sands four kilometres from the Environment Agency monitoring point. The catchment is rural.
More from the profile
Where the sewage works discharges
Sewage from Saunton, Braunton, Barnstaple and the surrounding area, is treated at Ashford (Barnstaple) STW and discharges to the Taw Estuary, 13km southeast of the bathing water. Sewage from Instow, Bideford, and the surrounding area, is treated at Cornborough STW and then discharges to the sea at Rock Nose, eight kilometres south of the bathing water. Both of these discharges are disinfected, and designed to protect bathing water quality.
What has been done about it
In the past this bathing water was affected by continuous and intermittent discharges of sewage to the Taw/Torridge Estuary. The South West Water sewage treatment scheme for the area collects sewage from the various settlements around the Taw/Torridge Estuary. It is split into two schemes centred on the Ashford (Barnstaple) sewage treatment works (STW) (North Scheme), and a works at Cornborough (South Scheme). The North Scheme at Ashford (Barnstaple) STW, which provided secondary treatment and an outfall to the deep water channel of the Taw Estuary, was completed during 1996 and 1997. The STW was upgraded with ultraviolet (UV) disinfection in October 1997, and flows from the Velator STW were transferred to Ashford at that time. The South Scheme at Cornborough STW, which provides secondary treatment and UV disinfection, was completed in 2003. The scheme included the transfer of sewage from the Rock Nose discharge and other continuous discharges from the south bank of the Taw Estuary to Cornborough STW, and discharge though a 600m outfall at Abbotsham. A number of local sewerage systems with combined sewer overflows (CSO) in Bideford, Appledore, Velator, Fremington and parts of south Barnstaple were also improved or removed as part of the scheme. Improvements were made to eight storm overflows including Yelland CSO, Bideford pumping station (PS), and Instow 'A' PS in April 2004, and a further 22 storm overflows were improved by April 2005. Storm overflow event duration monitoring (EDM) was installed at eleven South West Water assets by April 2011.
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 Saunton Sands 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 59% of visits. Tarry residue was not noted at this site.
The council's part
The urban area of Saunton immediately behind the beach is served by a combined (surface and sewer) system. There are no outfalls from the system onto the beach.
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.
Saunton Sands'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 Saunton SandsOr put today’s verdict on your own site.
Put this beach on your own site
A small card showing today’s verdict for Saunton Sands, 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.