TIDE INFORMATION

• All times are calculated using GMT/UTC; add one hour to results between end March to end October.

• The tidal variations in and around the Isle of Wight/Solent area can be difficult to predict due to the influence of the island. For Totland Bay, Portland and Swanage areas in particular, the notes below might be worth reading.

Left: Ian Smith on the Edge Of A Deep Green Sea (E3 5c), Pembroke.
Photo by Carl Ryan.

Free 7 day tidal information is available for many coastal points for the UK and world wide on the Admiralty Easytide web site

For free 7 or 28 day tide predictions for 527 UK and Ireland locations (interactive map) visit tide times

Special note: tidal variations in the Isle of Wight/Solent area

From a climber's perspective the normal expectation is that there will be two high tides and two low tides within any 24 hour period. The time between high tides being somewhere between 12 - 13 hours apart and the pattern being roughly sinusodial as shown in the following profile.

Normal tide profile showing obvious 2x high and 2x low tides:

The resultant tide table is quite straightforward:

For some locations in the area around the Isle of Wight, tidal streams are modified by the island and these 'standing' tides can increase the duration of high water. In a nutshell, low tides might not be as low as you'd like, nor as long as you'd like, and you might find yourself with wet feet! From a climber's point of view, this affects the Needles, Portland and Swanage areas.

Standing tide profile (for Totland Bay) showing much less distinct high & low tides:

The tide table generated by this graph is much more confusing, even showing high and low tides of the same height (due to computer rounding and approximation errors):

Some care is required when looking at a tide table which has more than the normal 2-High/2-Low tides in 24hrs. Particular attention should be payed to the height columns since these will indicate the real periods of high and low water.