Ilfracombe Wildersmouth

North Devon, England

Advice against bathing

The Environment Agency has permanent advice against bathing here. That is a standing instruction, not a forecast: it does not lift on a sunny day, and nothing on this page can tell you the water is clear, because nobody samples it any more.

What the Environment Agency says

Permanent advice against bathing is in place at Ilfracombe Wildersmouth. Ilfracombe Wildersmouth is no longer designated as a bathing water under the Bathing Water Regulations. Water quality is affected by pollution from run off from agricultural land and urban areas and by occasional discharges from a storm overflow.

Removed from the register of designated bathing waters in 2020. The Environment Agency’s own record for this beach.

Why it is on this site at all

Because leaving it off is worse. Every other beach on here has a verdict from today’s data. If this one simply were not listed, the gap on the map would look like open coast with nothing to say about it — and somebody standing on the sand would have no way to tell the difference between a beach that is fine and a beach that stopped being tested years ago.

There is no verdict on this page and there never will be. Nobody is sampling this water.

The other beaches in the same position, or find one that is still tested.