How do I walk safely on the coast?

The coast path is the best walking many people ever do and it has a distinct hazard set that inland walking does not. Almost all of it comes down to two things that operate on their own timetable regardless of your plans: the tide, and the fact that soft British cliffs are actively falling into the sea.

Safety

What you'll need

• Tide times for the nearest port
• A paper map showing the coast path
• Windproof and waterproof clothing
• A charged phone

Step by step

1. Look up the tide times and heights before you go.Tide tables are published free by the UK Hydrographic Office, the RNLI and countless local sites. You need the times of high and low water and the height, because a spring tide covers far more ground than a neap. Times shift by roughly an hour a day, so yesterday's information is wrong.
2. Work out the cut-off time, then subtract a margin.For any beach walk, causeway or under-cliff section, identify the point at which the route becomes impassable and when. Then set your turnaround an hour earlier. Tides come in faster across flat sand than people expect, and they fill channels behind you before they reach you.
3. Know your escape route from any beach section.Before you commit to walking along the base of a cliff, identify where you can get off it, and check that route exists on the ground and not only on the map. Steps and slipways shown on old mapping are sometimes gone.
4. Stay well back from cliff edges.British coastal cliffs — chalk, clay, sandstone and shale — are undercut by the sea and eroding continuously. The overhanging ground at the top gives no warning. Keep to the path, keep children and dogs on the inland side, and never sit with your legs over the edge for a photograph.
5. Do not linger at the base of a cliff.Rockfall is constant and unpredictable, and it increases after rain and frost. Sunbathing or sheltering directly beneath a cliff is a recognised cause of serious injury.
6. Respect the wind on headlands.Wind funnels and accelerates around headlands and up cliff faces, and gusts are far stronger than the general forecast. On an exposed cliff path a gust can knock you over, and there is nowhere to fall but one way.
7. Treat wet rock, weed and slipways as ice.Algae-covered rock on the tide line is astonishingly slippery, and a fall there means falling onto rock or into water. Cross seaweed-covered rock slowly and deliberately, or go round.
8. Watch for large waves on rock and pier.Wave-dodging on a rock platform or a harbour wall is how people are washed in. Swell arrives in sets and a much larger wave than the ones before it is entirely normal. In rough conditions, stay off the low rocks and off piers.
9. Take the wind and the exposure into account for clothing.Coastal wind, spray and horizontal rain chill you quickly even in mild temperatures, and there is often no shelter for miles. Windproof outer layers matter more than heavy insulation.
10. Know the emergency route.999, ask for the coastguard, for anyone in difficulty on the coast, on cliffs, in the water or cut off by the tide. Give a location — a what3words reference or a grid reference — and stay where you can be seen.
11. Check the signal situation and tell someone your plan.Signal is patchy in coves and beneath cliffs. Tell someone the route and your expected finish time, as you would for a hill day.

Tips

• Springs and neaps matter: around new and full moons the tide comes in higher and further, and the safe window on a beach is much shorter.
• Coast paths are often much more strenuous than the distance suggests, because they drop to sea level at every valley and climb out again. Budget considerably more time than the mileage implies.
• The seaward side of a coast path is not always fenced. In wind, walk on the inland side of the path.
• Take more water than you would inland. Sun, wind and salt are dehydrating and there is often nowhere to refill.
• The RNLI and coastguard publish local advice for individual beaches and causeways — for known traps like tidal islands, read it.

Common mistakes

• Setting off along a beach without checking the tide — The tide does not negotiate, and the point where you are cut off is often behind you rather than ahead.
• Standing on the edge for a photograph — The ground at a cliff top is frequently overhanging and unsupported. It gives no warning, and the fall is usually fatal.
• Assuming the sea will not reach you on a rock platform — Wave sets vary enormously and a wave several times larger than the previous ones is ordinary. That is the one that takes people in.

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