St Mary's Bay

St Mary's Bay · South Kent · sand

Wide sandy beach with wooden groynes south of Dymchurch.

What the tide does here

At a spring high tide only about 12% of St Mary's Bay is out of the water. By spring low the sea has drawn back roughly 690 metres, uncovering 80% of it — about 223 hectares of sand.

St Mary's Bay at high water: the dry beach shaded on a satellite map — **High water, 6.9 m above chart datum.** About 15% of St Mary's Bay is out of the water.

St Mary's Bay at low water: the dry beach shaded on a satellite map — **Low water, 1.7 m above chart datum.** About 55% is uncovered.

Dogs

From 1 May to 30 September dogs are banned from the beach between The Fairway and the new sewer outfall, and must be on a lead on the promenade there. A separate stretch at the far southern end is also banned over the same dates; it comes under the Littlestone order.

Water quality

Classified Sufficient by the Environment Agency in 2025, sampled as "St Mary's Bay (Kent)", a designated bathing water since 1988. Daily pollution risk forecasts appear on this page in the bathing season.

Lifeguards

No RNLI lifeguard patrol here.

Facilities

Nearby: public toilets and parking. Access: a step-free path and pushchair-friendly access. Flat approach; wide open sands at low tide.

All Kent beaches on Beach Days

Tide predictions © UK Hydrographic Office. Beach shape from Environment Agency LIDAR survey data, © Environment Agency, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Facilities and places from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Bathing water classifications from the Environment Agency. Satellite imagery © Mapbox, © Maxar.