England · Environment Agency
Ilfracombe Tunnels Beach
Avoid swimming
Regulator has closed this bathing water.
High confidence — the regulator's own classification speaks for itself.
Status computed 2 Nov 2026, 16:13 UTC; statuses refresh every 15 minutes.
What we know
- Regulator classification
- Closed
- Pollution risk forecast
- Normal (forecast expired)
- Active discharges
- None within 5km
- Recent discharges (last 48 hours)
- 1 within 5km
- Upstream river network
- Downstream of a South West Water discharge in the last 48 hours
- Surrounding overflow coverage
- Within an ingested water company network
- Monitoring season
- Currently in regulator monitoring season
Last sampled 23 September 2024 · 2 years ago. Source: Environment Agency.
Forecast expired 2 Oct 2026, 08:29 UTC — outside its 24-hour validity window. Source: Environment Agency.
Most recent at BERRYNARBOR SPST_PSCSOEO_BERRYNARBOR (South West Water) — ended 2 Nov 2026, 10:56 UTC.
Sewage-map data as of 2 Nov 2026, 16:00 UTC — discharges traced through the river network.
Water body baseline
The Environment Agency classifies this water body (Bristol Channel Outer South) as Moderate ecological status (2022 classification). That is a Water Framework Directive assessment of long-term ecosystem health — plants, invertebrates, fish, chemistry — not a bacteriological measure of whether the water is safe to swim in today. It is shown as context and plays no part in the verdict above.
The EA’s Catchment Data Explorer page for this water body →
Source: EA Catchment Data Explorer, Open Government Licence v3.0 — data as of 21 Aug 2026, 10:40 UTC.
What this verdict means
Avoid swimming is driven by the strongest negative signals this map tracks: an active sewage discharge affecting this water, or a regulator classification of Poor or a closure. After a discharge ends, waiting at least 48 hours before swimming is the standard advice.
Every verdict here is computed from regulator classifications, sample dates, pollution-risk forecasts, and water-company discharge reports — it is not a water test. Absence of a negative signal is not positive confirmation of safety, and conditions on the day (rainfall, currents, cold) matter as much as water quality. Read how statuses are decided.