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The best and worst bathing waters

Of the 941 bathing waters in Britain and Ireland, 566 were rated Excellent for 2025 and 39 were rated Poor. These are the two ends of the official four-grade scale.

A classification is not a reading of today’s water. It is worked out from samples taken across the last three or four bathing seasons, so it describes how a beach usually behaves — and a beach rated Excellent can still be one to stay out of the afternoon after a storm overflow discharges. That is what the verdict on each card below is for, and it is worked out fresh every half hour.

The worst: rated Poor

A Poor rating is not a bad day. It is the bottom of the scale after three or four seasons of samples, and it carries advice against bathing for the whole season — which is why these 39 show “advice against bathing” on this site every day, rain or shine. 32 of them are in England.

The best: rated Excellent

566 of the 941, which is most of them — so the useful question is which are near you rather than which are on the list. They are grouped by area, with the biggest first: Cornwall has 80.

The cleanest beaches, by area

Surfing

237 of the 352 beaches open to the ocean are rated Excellent and 5 are rated Poor. Surf conditions are a different question from water quality, and they change by the hour — the swell, wind and tide for each are on the surfing page.