Rock Pooling Near Exmouth for Kids: The Best Spots and the Tide

Short answer: Exmouth's main beach is two miles of flat sand with no rock pools. Head east to Orcombe Point, where the red rocks at the start of the Jurassic Coast give you something to explore. Budleigh Salterton and Sidmouth, both a short drive, are better still.

Flat sand is the wrong habitat

Exmouth's beach is its great asset — two miles of flat sand with a level promenade behind it, the easiest beach in Devon with a buggy or a wheelchair. It is also, for exactly the same reasons, not a rock-pooling beach. There is very little structure for anything to live in.

Head east to Orcombe

The eastern end of the beach is where the red rock starts, and Orcombe Point is the official western beginning of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site — the oldest rocks on the whole stretch. Reviewers describe a breathtaking red rocky coastline and note that the view of the cliffs is at its best when the tide is out.

This is also the end where dogs are allowed year-round, rather than being banned from May to September like the main beach. Walk out from the town or park nearer that end.

Better a short drive away

Budleigh Salterton, ten minutes east, has a beach of large smooth pebbles — the Budleigh Buns weathered out of the Triassic cliffs — plus the Otter estuary and a wetland nature reserve behind it. More geology and birds than rock pools, but a genuinely interesting shoreline.

Sidmouth, twenty minutes on, has proper rock pools at Jacob's Ladder below Connaught Gardens, which reviewers describe as amazing for children to forage amongst.

Timing

Rock pooling only works on a falling tide. Aim to arrive about two hours before low water and work outwards as the sea drops — that way the pools furthest out, which nobody has disturbed, are the ones you reach last. Check the tide table before you set off rather than guessing.

What to take

• A clear plastic tub rather than a net — you can see into it and it does not damage anything.
• Beach shoes or old trainers. Barefoot on wet rock ends badly.
• A small net is fine for shrimp, but hands and patience catch more.
• Something to sit on. The best pools reward waiting rather than poking.
• Sun cream even in cloud — you will be out on open rock for an hour.

The rules

• Put every rock back exactly as you found it. That is somebody's roof.
• Look, do not lift. Anemones and limpets come off badly.
• Return everything to the pool you took it from, not a different one.
• Never turn your back on the sea, and know when the tide turns.
• Beadlet anemones can sting soft skin — fine on fingertips, not on the inside of an arm.

A safety point specific to Exmouth

The currents where the Exe meets the sea run genuinely hard and swimming there is unsafe. If you are working the western end of the beach at all, keep children well back from the water. The eastern end towards Orcombe is the safer half in every sense.

And a wet-weather version

World of Country Life at Sandy Bay has a large indoor museum and animal handling sessions, and A la Ronde is the strangest house in Devon — both good if the tide and the weather refuse to cooperate.