The beach from Bude continues through here all the way around to Sandymouth, so at low tide, you can walk the entire section and return on the cliff top coast path as the tide comes back in. Northcott is similar to Maer but it breaks the cliffs to allow a stream to cross the beach. Access is easy once you negotiate the often steep and loose cobble ridge that backs the beach. Northcott has highly mobile sand due to rip tides, and in some years many rock pools are covered by this. The cliffs rise just past the stream and a headland separates it from Sandymouth at high tide. The section between the cobbles and the headland is dominated by the freshwater crossing from the stream. There is a tea room here (Margaret's rustic Tea Garden) in season and a NT car park all year.
The stream crosses the beach on the right hand side and so the rocks there can be very slippery and are dominated by sea lettuce and other green weeds. The small pools in the rocks behind this section contain a lot of blennies and shore crabs along with bearded rocklings and the beadlet anemonies. It is a great place to explore but can be hard work to walk over. As you enter the beach from the grass look for the holes of small mining bees living in the sandy bank, these are harmless and have been here for years. Between the boulders and pebbles live sea slaters and bristletails along with a lot of wolf spiders, all harmless to us but quick to grab any insect that lands here blown in exhausted from the sea.
The section to the left is full of pools and lots of creatures but you might need to search hard, Northcott is popular and they are used to hiding between tides from eager children with buckets and nets. Lots of limpet, barnacles, honeycomb worms, topshells and beadlets live here. Be very careful not to get cut off, the cliffs are not safe to climb so please be aware if the tide is coming in do not go far from the main beach.
The stream crosses the beach on the right hand side and so the rocks there can be very slippery and are dominated by sea lettuce and other green weeds. The small pools in the rocks behind this section contain a lot of blennies and shore crabs along with bearded rocklings and the beadlet anemonies. It is a great place to explore but can be hard work to walk over. As you enter the beach from the grass look for the holes of small mining bees living in the sandy bank, these are harmless and have been here for years. Between the boulders and pebbles live sea slaters and bristletails along with a lot of wolf spiders, all harmless to us but quick to grab any insect that lands here blown in exhausted from the sea.
The section to the left is full of pools and lots of creatures but you might need to search hard, Northcott is popular and they are used to hiding between tides from eager children with buckets and nets. Lots of limpet, barnacles, honeycomb worms, topshells and beadlets live here. Be very careful not to get cut off, the cliffs are not safe to climb so please be aware if the tide is coming in do not go far from the main beach.