Britain and Ireland

The Coquet at Rothbury

River reach · Fresh water

A small, fast, clean upland river of gravel and bedrock running through a wooded Northumbrian valley, with a substantial sea trout run for its size.

The Cotswold Water Park

Gravel pit · Fresh water

A complex of well over a hundred flooded gravel workings in the upper Thames valley, with clear water over clean gravel, steep-shelving margins and extensive weed.

The Dorset Stour at Blandford

River reach · Fresh water

A clay-and-chalk river with a soft bed, deep slow bends and streamier gravel between, running through open downland farmland.

The Eden at Appleby

River reach · Fresh water

A red sandstone river running north through the Vale of Eden, with gravel glides, deep sandstone-walled pools and a strong grayling population alongside its salmonids.

The Lune at Lancaster

River reach · Fresh water

A wide gravel river running to a tidal limit just below the city, with long streamy glides, unstable shifting gravel bars and a substantial salmon and sea trout run.

The Ribble at Clitheroe

River reach · Fresh water

A limestone-influenced river of fast gravel runs and deep pools below the Bowland fells, with a large migratory run and a flashy hydrograph.

The Severn at Shrewsbury

River reach · Fresh water

A wide, slow, silt-and-gravel loop of the upper-middle Severn enclosing the town on three sides, with high tree-lined banks and a very flashy response to Welsh rainfall.

The Severn at Tewkesbury and the Avon confluence

Confluence · Fresh water

Where the Warwickshire Avon joins the Severn below a weir and lock complex, giving a slack, a fast tongue and a deep junction pool within a very short distance.

The Severn at Worcester

River reach · Fresh water

A deep, wide, weir-controlled navigation reach below the Teme confluence, with a soft bed, steep banks and one of the longest match-fishing records of any English river.

The Tyne at Hexham

River reach · Fresh water

A wide gravel river below the meeting of the North and South Tyne, and the most productive salmon river in England — a recovery from an industrially dead river within living memory.

The Ure at Ripon

River reach · Fresh water

A limestone river of gravel runs and deep bends below the Yorkshire Dales, joined by the Skell and the Laver at Ripon and becoming the Ouse a short way downstream.

The Wharfe at Bolton Abbey

River reach · Fresh water

A limestone-gravel river running fast and clear through a wooded valley, with long streamy glides, a narrow rock gorge at the Strid and deep pools between.

Particular to this ground: moving water and currents.

The Yorkshire Derwent at Malton

River reach · Fresh water

A slow, deep, clay-bedded lowland river with heavy bankside vegetation, one of the most ecologically protected rivers in England and an unusually rich coarse fishery.

The Yorkshire Ouse at York

River reach · Fresh water

A wide, deep, silt-bedded river through the city, tidal a short way downstream, flashy in response to Dales rainfall and prone to substantial and rapid flooding.

Lyme Regis Cobb

Harbour wall · Salt water

A curving medieval harbour wall of Portland stone enclosing a small drying harbour, standing on the Jurassic clay coast where the ledges are dark blue lias and the ground is soft and slipping.

West Bay and Bridport harbour

Harbour wall · Salt water

A piered river mouth cut into the western end of the Chesil shingle system, beneath the vertical golden sandstone of East Cliff, with steep shingle either side of the entrance.

Walney Island

Island · Salt water

A long, low barrier island of glacial drift, sand and shingle lying off Barrow-in-Furness, with open sand and shingle beaches on the Irish Sea side and the sheltered Walney Channel and its mudflats behind.

Particular to this ground: tides and being cut off, cold water shock.

Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.

Beachy Head and the ledges

Ledge · Salt water

Chalk wave-cut ledges beneath the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain, with flint reefs, gullies and heavy kelp, and deep water not far off the point.

Particular to this ground: cliffs and rock platforms.

Bexhill

Beach · Salt water

Shingle over a sandstone and clay platform that uncovers as flat scars at low water, giving mixed rough and clean ground within a short cast.

Camber Sands

Beach · Salt water

The only extensive dune-backed sand beach in East Sussex, lying in the lee of Dungeness where the drift system drops its finer material, drying a very long way at low water.

Eastbourne Pier

Pier · Salt water

A Victorian pleasure pier on a shingle shore immediately east of Beachy Head, with chalk ground running out beneath the shingle towards the headland.

Folkestone harbour arm

Breakwater · Salt water

A stone arm and pier enclosing a small harbour beneath the chalk of the East Cliff, standing over mixed chalk rubble, shingle and sand.

Littlehampton and the Arun

Estuary mark · Brackish water

A narrow river entrance between long training walls with a strong stream on both tides, over sand and shingle, with the Arun running fast and coloured behind it.

Newhaven west arm

Breakwater · Salt water

A long concrete breakwater running south from the Ouse entrance, with deep dredged water in the harbour mouth inside and chalk and shingle ground outside.

Ramsgate harbour

Harbour wall · Salt water

A large enclosed royal harbour with long stone and concrete arms over sand and chalk, at the corner where the Thames estuary turns into the Dover Strait.

Constantine Bay

Surf beach · Salt water

A west-facing sand beach on the Padstow side of Trevose Head, with reef at the northern end and rock running out from the southern, and clean sand and bars between.

Particular to this ground: cliffs and rock platforms.

Particular to this water: Bass is regulated: a daily bag limit, a minimum size and a catch-and-release-only period early in the year, all set annually. Check the current rules with the fisheries authority before keeping a fish.

Exmouth and the Exe estuary

Estuary · Brackish water

A large drying sand and mud estuary behind a curving sand spit, with a narrow deep entrance, extensive mussel beds and a strong ebb through the bar.

Falmouth

Charter departure port · Salt water

A deep natural harbour on the Fal, sheltered in almost any weather, and the departure point for the charter fleet working the western approaches.

Particular to this ground: boat traffic and being seen.

Particular to this water: A departure port, not a fishing mark. Catches are recorded against the offshore ground. Bluefin tuna trips run only under a permitted catch-and-release programme through qualifying skippers.

Looe

Charter departure port · Salt water

A working south-coast harbour at the mouth of the East and West Looe rivers, and the departure point for the charter fleet that works the grounds and wrecks offshore of it.

Particular to this ground: boat traffic and being seen.

Particular to this water: A departure port, not a fishing mark. What the fleet catches is recorded against the offshore ground, not against this harbour. Charter availability, licensing and permitted species are matters for the individual skipper and the fisheries authority.

Perran Sands

Surf beach · Salt water

Three miles of dune-backed west-facing sand running north from Perranporth, almost featureless at low water and cut by rips between the bars when the surf is up.

Particular to this water: Bass is regulated: a daily bag limit, a minimum size and a catch-and-release-only period early in the year, all set annually. Check the current rules with the fisheries authority before keeping a fish.

Teignmouth

Estuary mark · Brackish water

A narrow river mouth between a sand spit and the Ness headland, with a notoriously fast and shifting bar, a stone pier, and deep scoured water in the entrance.

The Dart estuary

Estuary · Brackish water

A deep drowned valley with steep wooded sides, no bar and no shallow entrance, carrying salt water a long way inland over a mud and gravel bed.

The Portscatho and Portloe rock coast

Rock mark · Salt water

The eastern edge of the Roseland peninsula between Portscatho and Portloe: low broken rock and small ledges above deep-ish water, in a series of short stretches separated by coves, on a coast that carries far less angling pressure than the Fal a few miles west of it.

Particular to this ground: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.

Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.

The Tamar estuary

Estuary · Brackish water

A deep drowned valley forming the Devon and Cornwall boundary, with soft mud, extensive intertidal, a naval dockyard on one bank and salt reaching a long way upstream.

Watergate Bay

Surf beach · Salt water

Two miles of open north-facing sand between Newquay and Trevelgue, cliff-backed the whole way, with very little structure and a bar that reforms through the winter.

Particular to this water: Bass is regulated: a daily bag limit, a minimum size and a catch-and-release-only period early in the year, all set annually. Check the current rules with the fisheries authority before keeping a fish.

Carsington Water

Reservoir · Fresh water

A pumped-storage reservoir in a limestone valley in Derbyshire, with a long dam, shallow bays and a level that varies substantially with the pumping cycle.

Farmoor Reservoir

Reservoir · Fresh water

Two concrete-banked basins beside the Thames in Oxfordshire, steep-sided and hard-edged with little natural margin, and a fishery shaped entirely by that engineering.

Ladybower Reservoir

Reservoir · Fresh water

A deep upland reservoir in a steep gritstone valley in the Peak District, with acidic peaty inflow, steep drowned hillsides and clear cold water.

Wimbleball Lake

Reservoir · Fresh water

A deep, steep-sided reservoir on Exmoor with a dam in a narrow gorge, cold clear acidic water and a fishery shaped by its altitude and depth.

The Hampshire Avon at Ringwood

River reach · Fresh water

A chalk-fed river that behaves like a big coarse river in its lower reaches: wide, gravel-bedded, weedy and fast, with a legendary specimen-fishing history.

The Itchen at Winchester

River reach · Fresh water

A classic chalk stream through a cathedral city, running clear and even over gravel with dense ranunculus, braided into carriers and hatch pools among the water meadows.

The Kennet at Newbury

River reach · Fresh water

A chalk-fed river braided with the canal navigation, giving clear gravel runs, weedy glides and slower canalised sections within the same reach.

Old Town Bay

Bay · Salt water

A crescent of sand on the south coast of St Mary's, sheltered between two granite arms — Tolman Point to the east and the Peninnis headland to the west — with rock and weed on both flanks and clean ground in the middle. It is the sheltered counterpart to the exposed headland beside it: where Peninnis is fished for depth, this is fished because it is out of the swell and the rock at either end is reachable without a scramble. The islands' guidance is blunt that Scilly's beaches produce little, and the value of this bay is the rock at its edges rather than the sand between them.

Particular to this water: Sea angling in England needs no rod licence, and that is the end of what is simple here. The archipelago has its own inshore fisheries authority with its own byelaws, much of the coast and the surrounding water carries conservation designation, and several of the headlands are nature reserves. Nothing on this page states that any ground may be fished, and no size, bag or gear limit is published here, because the byelaws are revised and FishingHQ does not track them. Ask the Isles of Scilly IFCA.

The Daymark, St Martin's

Headland · Salt water

The north-eastern end of St Martin's, at Chapel Down, under the red-and-white stone daymark that has stood on the island's highest ground since the seventeenth century. It is the outermost accessible shore ground in the inhabited archipelago on this side: granite headland falling to deep Atlantic water, exposed on three sides, with the open sea and the Eastern Isles beyond. The sources name it with the St Mary's deep-water marks and for the same reason — depth reachable from a shore stance — and it is a longer walk to less shelter than any of them.

Particular to this water: Sea angling in England needs no rod licence, and that is the end of what is simple here. The archipelago has its own inshore fisheries authority with its own byelaws, much of the coast and the surrounding water carries conservation designation, and several of the headlands are nature reserves. Nothing on this page states that any ground may be fished, and no size, bag or gear limit is published here, because the byelaws are revised and FishingHQ does not track them. Ask the Isles of Scilly IFCA.

Happisburgh

Beach · Salt water

Sand and shingle beneath a rapidly retreating soft cliff of glacial till, with failed timber revetment along much of it and a shifting bar offshore.

Sea Palling

Beach · Salt water

Clean sand held in a series of artificial bays behind nine offshore rock reefs, which is unusual ground for this coast: hard structure in a place that has none naturally.

Sizewell

Beach · Salt water

Shingle over sand beside two power station outfalls and their offshore intake rigs, which give this stretch a locally warmed plume and a set of hard structures on an otherwise featureless coast.

The Deben estuary

Estuary · Brackish water

A drowned valley entered over a shifting shingle bar, with steep-to shingle at the mouth giving way to mud, saltmarsh and oyster ground upstream.

Particular to this ground: moving water and currents.

The Thurne

River reach · Brackish water

A short, wide, saline-influenced Broads river running from Hickling to the Bure, with reed margins, a soft bed and a documented history of salt-driven fish kills.

The Waveney at Beccles

River reach · Brackish water

A wide, slow, tidal Broads river with reed and marsh margins, a soft silt bed and a salinity gradient that moves substantially with river flow.

Amble and the Coquet estuary

Estuary · Brackish water

A small piered river mouth over sand and mud, with Coquet Island's low sandstone reef a mile offshore and a drying inner harbour behind the training walls.

Bamburgh and Budle Bay

Beach · Salt water

Clean sand beach beneath the dolerite crag the castle stands on, with the Whin Sill outcropping as low reef at either end and the drying sand and mud of Budle Bay behind the northern point.

Beadnell Bay

Bay · Salt water

A wide crescent of clean sand between two dolerite points, with a limestone reef running out from the southern horn and the only west-facing harbour on the English east coast at its northern end.

Blyth South Harbour breakwater

Breakwater · Salt water

A long stone and concrete arm enclosing a working river mouth, with deep dredged water inside and rock armour over clean sand outside.

Boulmer

Rock mark · Salt water

A low sandstone and limestone scar coast with a shallow rock-fringed haven, weed-covered gullies and clean sand patches between the scars.

Saltburn

Beach · Salt water

Sand over a shale platform beneath the highest cliffs on the English east coast, with the pier standing on the transition between the soft Holderness-fed sand to the south-east and the hard Jurassic ground north-west.

Seahouses harbour

Harbour wall · Salt water

A small working harbour with stone piers over clean sand, sheltered behind the Farne Islands' reef platform which breaks the worst of the swell a mile offshore.

Snab Point

Headland · Salt water

A low rock point at the south end of the Cresswell scars, with broken ground off it and the sand of Druridge Bay running north. The corner that separates the rough ground from the beach.

Particular to this ground: cliffs and rock platforms.

The Needle's Eye

Rock mark · Salt water

A pierced sandstone stack and the ledges around it on the cliff coast south of Berwick, with deep water below the rock and no beach beneath it. Summer ground: it is a lure mark rather than a bait one.

Particular to this ground: cliffs and rock platforms, cold water shock.

The Tees estuary

Estuary · Brackish water

A heavily engineered river mouth between training walls, with reclaimed industrial land on both banks, extensive intertidal mud at Seal Sands and one of the most closely monitored water-quality recoveries in England.

Poole Harbour entrance and Sandbanks

Tidal channel · Salt water

The mouth of one of the largest natural harbours in the world, constricted to a few hundred metres between sand spits, scoured deep, with a double high water and a stream that runs for far longer on the ebb than the flood.

Studland Bay

Bay · Salt water

A shallow sandy bay behind Handfast Point, floored with sand and one of the largest seagrass beds on the English south coast, with the Poole Harbour entrance at its western end. Warm, shallow, sheltered water over eelgrass.

Particular to this water: The seagrass beds in this bay are a designated marine protected feature with their own management measures, including restrictions on anchoring, which are set by the authorities rather than described here.

Swanage Pier

Pier · Salt water

A timber pleasure pier in a sheltered east-facing bay under the Purbeck chalk, standing over clean sand and weed with limestone ledges at both ends of the bay.

Marlow weir pool, River Thames

Weir pool · Fresh water

A large navigation weir and lock on the middle Thames with a deeply scoured pool, a fast broken tongue and a long slower tail below it.

Particular to this ground: moving water and currents.

The tidal Trent at Dunham

River reach · Brackish water

The tidal Trent below Cromwell weir, running brown and fast over sand and silt between high flood banks, with a genuine tidal bore — the aegir — on the largest spring tides.

Particular to this ground: moving water and currents.

The Trent at Burton Joyce

River reach · Fresh water

A wide gravel-and-sand reach of the middle Trent below Nottingham, with hard gravel runs, defined creases against the far bank and a heavily engineered flood channel behind both banks.

The Trent at Newark Dyke

River reach · Fresh water

The navigation cut and the natural channel dividing round Newark, giving two very different waters within a few hundred metres: a deep slow dyke and a faster gravel river.

The Wye at Hereford

River reach · Fresh water

A wide gravel-bedded reach through the city, with long shallow glides, deeper bends and the summer low-flow and algal problems that have made this river a national water-quality case.

Aust and the Severn crossings

Estuary mark · Brackish water

The narrowest point of the upper Severn estuary, where the bridge crossings span mud, rock ledges and a channel carrying the second-largest tidal range on earth at several knots.

Particular to this ground: moving water and currents.

Brean Down

Headland · Brackish water

A carboniferous limestone ridge projecting nearly two kilometres west into the Severn Estuary, an outlier of the Mendips surrounded by the estuary's mud and sand. Hard rock on the down itself, deep soft mud on both flanks.

Particular to this ground: tides and being cut off, cold water shock, cliffs and rock platforms.

Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.

Clevedon Pier

Pier · Salt water

A slender iron pier reaching from a rock shore into the deep central channel of the Severn, standing in the fastest and most heavily silt-laden water on the English side.

Hinkley Point and Stolford

Beach section · Salt water

A flat, ledged lias rock foreshore extending a very long way out into the inner Bristol Channel, with mud between the ledges, beside power station outfalls and their warmed plume.

Particular to this ground: tides and being cut off.

Minehead

Beach · Salt water

Sand and shingle beneath a wooded headland, with a harbour arm at the western end and an increasingly muddy, increasingly tidal shore running east into the inner channel.

Porlock Weir

Harbour wall · Salt water

A tiny shingle-bar harbour behind a breached storm ridge, with a boulder and shingle foreshore and an extensive drying rock scar in front of it.

Portishead

Estuary mark · Brackish water

A rock and mud point at the corner where the Severn narrows towards Avonmouth, with a very strong stream past the point and the deep shipping channel close inshore.

Watchet harbour

Harbour wall · Salt water

A small harbour on the alabaster and lias cliffs of west Somerset, drying completely at low water onto a flat rock and mud scar that extends a long way out.

Weston-super-Mare

Beach · Salt water

A vast, near-level bay of sand over deep soft mud, drying more than a kilometre, with two piers and a tidal range among the largest anywhere.

Particular to this ground: drowning and immersion.

Calshot Spit

Headland · Salt water

A shingle spit projecting into Southampton Water at its junction with the Solent, with deep dredged channel immediately off it and the double high water at its most pronounced.

Chichester Harbour

Estuary · Brackish water

A large, almost entirely drying natural harbour of mud, saltmarsh and winding channels behind a narrow entrance, with the double high water of the Solent working through it.

Christchurch Harbour and Mudeford Run

Tidal channel · Brackish water

A shallow drying harbour fed by the Avon and Stour, draining through a single narrow sand-bar entrance — the Run — where the stream reaches several knots and the channel shifts constantly.

Particular to this ground: moving water and currents.

Hayling Island

Island · Salt water

A low sand and shingle island between two drying harbours, with a shingle beach on its seaward side and fast entrance channels at both ends.

Lymington River

Estuary · Brackish water

A short drowned valley draining the New Forest into the western Solent, with soft mud, extensive saltmarsh and a dredged ferry channel through it.

Portsmouth Harbour entrance

Tidal channel · Salt water

A narrow deep entrance to a very large drying harbour, scoured to considerable depth, carrying naval and commercial traffic through a stream that runs hard on both tides.

Particular to this ground: boat traffic and being seen.

Ryde Pier

Pier · Salt water

The oldest seaside pier in England, running most of a kilometre across an enormous drying sand flat to reach navigable water on the island's north shore.

Selsey Bill

Headland · Salt water

A low shingle and clay point where the Sussex coast turns west, with extensive rock and clay ledges — the Mixon and the Streets — running offshore and a strong tide over them.

Southsea and Eastney

Beach section · Salt water

Steep shingle on the eastern approach to Portsmouth Harbour, with deep water close in and the strong entrance stream running past the point at Eastney.

St Catherine's Point

Headland · Salt water

The southern tip of the Isle of Wight: a landslipped undercliff of chalk and greensand above a boulder shore, with a tidal race running off the point and deep water close in.

Particular to this ground: moving water and currents.

The Needles

Headland · Salt water

A line of chalk stacks running west from the island's tip, with a strong race through the passage inside them and very deep scoured water close under the rock.

Yaverland and Sandown Bay

Beach · Salt water

A clean sand bay between Culver Cliff's chalk and the sandstone of Shanklin, with rock ledges at the northern end and gently shelving sand through the middle.

Canvey Island sea wall

Estuary mark · Brackish water

A continuous concrete flood wall around a reclaimed island lying below high-water level, standing over soft mud that dries a long way out into the Thames.

Herne Bay

Beach · Salt water

Shingle over a firm chalk and clay platform in the outer Thames, with the isolated stub of a storm-severed pier head standing a kilometre offshore.

Holehaven Creek

Tidal channel · Brackish water

A tidal creek separating Canvey from the Essex mainland, running between soft mud banks past oil terminals with a strong stream on both tides.

The Blackwater estuary

Estuary · Brackish water

A broad shallow estuary of soft mud, saltmarsh and oyster ground, with an unusually high salinity for an estuary because its freshwater input is small relative to its tidal volume.

The Medway estuary

Estuary · Brackish water

A complex of soft mud islands, saltmarsh and winding creeks behind a single narrow entrance shared with the Thames, with a large tidal range and a long naval and industrial history in its sediment.

The Swale

Tidal channel · Brackish water

The tidal channel separating the Isle of Sheppey from mainland Kent, joining the Thames at one end and the Medway at the other, floored with soft mud and fringed with saltmarsh throughout.

Whitstable and the Street

Beach section · Salt water

A shingle shore fronting an oyster fishery of Roman standing, with the Street — a natural shingle and clay spit — running more than a kilometre out to sea and uncovering on a low tide.

Particular to this ground: tides and being cut off.

Hornsea

Beach · Salt water

Steep sand and shingle over soft boulder clay on the fastest-eroding coast in Europe, where the beach is fed continuously by the cliff behind it and the ground offshore is soft and featureless.

Ravenscar and the Peak rocks

Rock mark · Salt water

Boulder-strewn shale ground beneath a two-hundred-metre cliff, reached by a long steep descent, with heavy kelp and broken rock giving way to sand well offshore.

Spurn Point

Headland · Brackish water

A five-kilometre sand and shingle spit curling west into the mouth of the Humber, breached and reshaped by storms and functionally an island at high water since 2013. Clean sand on the seaward side, mud and sand flats inside, and the Binks — a shifting shingle and sand bank — off the end.

Particular to this ground: tides and being cut off, cold water shock.

Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.

Staithes

Cove · Salt water

A narrow beck mouth cut into Jurassic shale and ironstone, with steep rock scars running out on both sides of the harbour and boulder ground beneath the cliffs.

Withernsea

Beach · Salt water

A defended clay coast where groynes and revetment hold a narrow sand and shingle strip against erosion, with soft ground and strong longshore drift running south towards Spurn.

The Kyle of Tongue

Sea loch · Brackish water

A shallow drying sea loch of clean white sand and rock on the north Sutherland coast, backed by Ben Loyal, with a causeway across its middle and strong streams at the narrows.

Dunbar harbour

Harbour wall · Salt water

A stone harbour blasted through a volcanic headland, with the ruins of a castle over the entrance and hard reef ground running out on both sides.

Kinghorn and Pettycur

Rock mark · Salt water

A basalt and sandstone shore on the Fife side of the Forth, with rock scars, a small drying harbour and clean sand bays between the outcrops.

Port Seton

Harbour wall · Salt water

A small harbour on the shallow southern shore of the Firth of Forth, over sand and mud with low rock scars either side and extensive drying ground at low water.

The Forth bridges and Queensferry

Estuary mark · Brackish water

The narrows of the Firth of Forth, where the firth constricts between rock shores to about a kilometre, with deep scoured water, a strong stream and three major bridges over it.

The mouth of the Endrick Water

Confluence · Fresh water

Where the Endrick Water enters the south-eastern corner of the loch across a flat, silted, very shallow delta, with Ring Point on its north side. It is why the Endrick Bank exists and why the fish are there: the migratory interest of the southern basin is fish routing to and from this one river mouth. It is also the most heavily governed water on the loch — the ground either side is a national nature reserve, run by NatureScot to the north and the RSPB to the south, and the river above it is a designated system. Nothing here describes a right to fish it.

Particular to this water: There is no freshwater rod licence in Scotland, and that is the end of what is simple. The fishing is owned: permission comes from the association holding the rights, so fishing without its permit is not fishing unlicensed but fishing without permission. Salmon and sea trout carry a separate migratory regime on top, with its own close times and conservation measures, and both are revised. This corner of the loch is a national nature reserve inside a national park. No grading, close time or bag figure is published here. Ask the association and the fishery board.

Scapa Flow

Bay · Salt water

A vast natural anchorage enclosed by the southern Orkney islands and the Churchill Barriers, with a sand and mud floor, extensive wartime wreckage and sheltered water in almost any wind.

The Brough of Birsay

Island · Salt water

A tidal island of Old Red Sandstone at Orkney's north-western corner, reached by a causeway that covers, with a wave-cut platform, geos and a strong stream past the point.

Particular to this ground: tides and being cut off.

Griminish Pier

Pier · Salt water

A small working pier on the exposed north-west corner of North Uist, with rock and kelp under it and the Sound of Harris beyond. Deep enough to fish off the end without a cast.

Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.

Kallin Harbour

Harbour wall · Salt water

The shellfish harbour on Grimsay in the Sound of Harris, with creel boats working out of it and rock, weed and shell ground all round the basin. A working harbour rather than a leisure one.

Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.

Loch Maddy

Sea loch · Salt water

An intricate sea loch on North Uist with an extraordinarily long shoreline for its area, containing dozens of islands, narrows and basins over gneiss and shell sand.

Luskentyre

Beach · Salt water

A vast white shell-sand beach and tidal flat on the Atlantic side of Harris, backed by machair, with gneiss reef at both ends and exceptionally clear shallow water over the sand.

Stornoway harbour

Harbour wall · Salt water

The largest harbour in the Outer Hebrides, a deep sheltered inlet in Lewisian gneiss with rock and kelp margins, mud in the inner basin and a working fishing fleet.

The Sound of Harris

Sound or strait · Salt water

A shallow, reef-strewn channel separating Harris from North Uist, with white shell sand, a maze of skerries and strong tidal streams running through the passages between them.

Loch Assynt

Loch · Fresh water

A deep loch set in Lewisian gneiss and Cambrian quartzite beneath Quinag, with clear cold water, rocky shallows and abrupt drop-offs close to the bank.

Loch Earn

Loch · Fresh water

A straight, deep, steep-sided loch running east to west so that the prevailing wind blows its full length, with a stocked and wild trout fishery and considerable depth close in.

Loch Leven

Loch · Fresh water

A large, shallow, lowland loch in a nutrient-rich agricultural catchment, with a soft bed, islands, extensive shallow margins and no great depth anywhere. Physically the opposite of a Highland loch in every respect.

Particular to this ground: cold water shock, boat safety.

Particular to this water: This ground carries conservation designations that constrain access, vehicles, bait collection and disturbance independently of any fishing rule.

Loch Maree

Loch · Fresh water

A large, deep, island-studded loch in Wester Ross beneath Slioch, historically one of the great sea trout fisheries of Scotland and still a wild brown trout water of standing.

Loch Shin

Loch · Fresh water

A long, comparatively shallow Sutherland loch, dammed at its southern end for hydroelectricity, with peaty acidic water and a level that moves with the scheme.

The Annan

River reach · Fresh water

A red sandstone river running south to the Solway over gravel and sand, with deep bends, a large sea trout run and a substantial grayling population.

The Beauly and the Ness

River reach · Fresh water

Two short, powerful, dam-influenced rivers draining the Great Glen and Strathfarrar into the inner Moray Firth over gravel and bedrock.

The Clyde at Lanark

River reach · Fresh water

The upper Clyde above the falls, running over gravel and bedrock through a wooded gorge, with a wild brown trout and grayling fishery recovered from severe industrial pollution.

The Helmsdale

River reach · Fresh water

A short, fast Sutherland river running through a narrow strath over gravel and bedrock, with loch-controlled headwaters that hold its flow up through dry spells.

The Nith at Dumfries

River reach · Fresh water

A wide gravel river running through the town to a long tidal estuary on the Solway, with a caul weir at Dumfries and a substantial autumn salmon run.

The Oykel and the Kyle of Sutherland

Confluence · Fresh water

Where four salmon rivers — Oykel, Cassley, Shin and Carron — meet at the head of a tidal kyle, giving a concentration of migratory fish unmatched in the north.

The River Dee at Banchory

River reach · Fresh water

A fast, clean, gravel-and-boulder river running off the Cairngorms, snow-fed in spring, and the classic Scottish spring salmon river with an exceptionally stable clear flow.

The River Don at Kemnay

River reach · Fresh water

A slower, richer, more alkaline river than the neighbouring Dee, running over gravel and weed through Aberdeenshire farmland with an exceptional wild brown trout population.

The Teith at Callander

River reach · Fresh water

A fast gravel river draining the Trossachs lochs, running clear and cold with long glides and deep pools, and carrying one of the earliest spring runs in Scotland.

The Thurso

River reach · Fresh water

A slow, dark, peat-fed Caithness river running off the flow country over flagstone and sand, with almost no gradient and a flow controlled by a loch at its head.

Applecross and the Inner Sound

Sound or strait · Salt water

The deepest inshore water in British seas — over three hundred metres in the Inner Sound trench — lying between the mainland and Raasay, with a shelving rock and shingle shore at Applecross.

Ardnamurchan Point

Headland · Salt water

The most westerly point of the British mainland: a hard igneous headland of a ring-dyke volcanic complex, with deep water immediately offshore and full exposure to the Atlantic.

Durness and Balnakeil Bay

Bay · Salt water

A limestone-floored bay of white shell sand at the north-western corner of the mainland, backed by machair, with hard quartzite reef at Faraid Head and exceptionally clear water.

Gruinard Bay

Bay · Salt water

A red sandstone bay of pink shell sand and rock between two headlands in Wester Ross, with an island in its mouth and clean shallow water over sand between the reefs.

Loch Carron and Plockton

Sea loch · Salt water

A sea loch with a shallow rock narrows at Stromeferry dividing a deep outer basin from a quieter inner one, with flame shell beds on the sill and sheltered anchorages at Plockton.

Loch Craignish and the Dorus Mor

Tidal race · Salt water

A narrow island-studded loch opening into the Dorus Mor — the 'great door' — where the tidal stream between Craignish Point and Garbh Reisa runs at up to eight knots.

Particular to this ground: moving water and currents.

Loch Ewe

Sea loch · Salt water

A north-facing sea loch open to the Minch with an island in its middle, deep basins, and a wartime anchorage history that left extensive structures on its shores.

Loch Hourn

Sea loch · Salt water

One of the most fjord-like lochs in Britain: a long, narrow, extremely steep-sided inlet with a shallow sill at Caolas Mor and deep, poorly-flushed basins behind it.

Loch Nevis and Mallaig

Sea loch · Salt water

A deep fjordic loch with a working ferry and fishing port at its mouth, an inner basin behind a shallow narrows at Kylesknoydart, and no road to most of its shore.

Loch Sunart

Sea loch · Salt water

The longest sea loch in the western Highlands, running thirty kilometres inland with a series of sills and basins, ancient oakwood along its shores and a rich sublittoral reef community.

Loch Torridon

Sea loch · Salt water

A deep fjordic loch beneath Torridonian sandstone mountains, with an inner loch behind a shallow narrows, a nationally important prawn ground and very deep water in the outer basin.

Baltasound

Bay · Salt water

A wide, sheltered east-facing bay on Unst behind the long spit of Balta Isle, the largest natural harbour in the north isles and once the base of an enormous herring fleet.

Bixter Voe

Sea loch · Salt water

A short Westside voe running north from the head of Sandsound Voe to the settlement at Bixter, narrow, shallow and largely drying over mud and weed at its inner end.

Bluemull Sound

Tidal race · Salt water

The narrow channel between Yell and Unst, carrying one of the strongest tidal streams in Shetland through a constriction that has been used as a test site for tidal turbines.

Particular to this ground: moving water and currents.

Bressay Sound

Sound or strait · Salt water

The deep sheltered channel between Lerwick and the island of Bressay, open at both ends, which has served as Shetland's principal anchorage for as long as there has been shipping in the islands.

Bridge of Walls

Tidal channel · Salt water

The narrow crossing at the head of the Voe of Browland on the far Westside, where the tide runs through a constriction under the road between the sea and the brackish water behind it.

Burrafirth Beach

Beach · Salt water

A sand and shingle beach at the head of Burra Firth on Unst, enclosed between the serpentine ridge of Saxa Vord and the cliffs of Hermaness, with the outflow of the Loch of Cliff entering behind it.

Catfirth Voe

Sea loch · Salt water

A small sheltered inlet off the south side of the Voe of Catfirth in Nesting, shallow and soft-bottomed, with the remains of a First World War seaplane station on its shore.

Cullivoe

Charter departure port · Salt water

A working pier at the north end of Yell on the Bluemull Sound shore, the departure point for the boats that fish the deep ground off the north isles.

Particular to this water: A working pier with commercial users. Access to it and any angling from it are the operator's decision and are separate from anything about the grounds it serves.

Dales Voe, Delting

Sea loch · Salt water

A narrow voe running south-west off the mouth of Sullom Voe in Delting, steep on its northern side and shoaling to soft ground at the head where the Burn of Dale enters.

Dury Voe

Sea loch · Salt water

A wide east-facing voe between Lunna Ness and the Nesting shore, open to the North Sea at its mouth and branching at its head into the shallow inlets at Laxo and Dury.

Eela Water

Loch · Fresh water

A broad open sheet of roughly sixty-four hectares on the Northmavine moorland, shallow across most of its area and exposed on every side, reached from the road that crosses the neck of the peninsula.

Esha Ness

Cliff coast · Salt water

A wall of andesite and tuff on the Atlantic edge of Northmavine, one of the most violently exposed cliff lines in Britain, with blowholes, stacks and blocks of rock thrown onto the clifftop by storm waves.

Particular to this ground: cliffs and rock platforms.

Gloup Voe

Sea loch · Salt water

A narrow, steep-sided cleft at the northern tip of Yell running inland from an exposed north-facing entrance, with high ground on both flanks and a small burn at its head.

Hamnavoe, Yell

Sea loch · Salt water

A small west-facing inlet on the Yell shore of Yell Sound, sheltered behind its own entrance and lying on the quiet side of the island away from the sound's main tidal stream.

Lerwick harbour

Harbour wall · Salt water

Shetland's principal port, a long working waterfront of stone and concrete quays on the Mainland shore of Bressay Sound, with deep water alongside and clean sand between the berths.

Particular to this water: The quays are the harbour authority's operational estate. Which berths, if any, a person may fish from, and when, is the authority's decision, is frequently seasonal and changes with vessel movements.

Loch of Asta

Loch · Fresh water

The smaller southern water of the Tingwall pair, almost joined to Tingwall itself across a narrow neck of ground, on the same band of limestone and carrying sea trout as well as brown.

Loch of Benston

Loch · Fresh water

A low-lying loch in Nesting sitting close to the Shetland coast behind a narrow strip of land, one of the three east-side waters the visitor guide groups as capable of trout over three pounds.

Loch of Clousta

Loch · Fresh water

A large, deeply indented Westside loch of many small bays, promontories and islands, lying in low hummocky ground a short distance behind the head of Clousta Voe and carrying sea trout as well as brown.

Loch of Girlsta

Loch · Fresh water

A large peat-stained loch of roughly ninety-seven hectares on the Mainland's east side, close to sea level and of low alkalinity, with a mean depth around ten metres and deeper holes along a broken eastern shore.

Particular to this water: The loch holds Arctic charr, a cold-water relict population that the association requires to be released. Whether that is a byelaw, a permit condition or a conservation measure on the day is the association's and the fisheries authority's answer, not this record's.

Loch of Spiggie

Loch · Fresh water

The largest loch in the South Mainland, a shallow sheet lying behind the dunes at the head of the Bay of Scousburgh with a broad area of sandy shallows at its north end and reed beds along part of its margin.

Particular to this water: The loch is an RSPB reserve rented by the Shetland Anglers Association, and its fishing is subject to the association's permit and to no-fishing zones covering the southern bay and a north-west corner. Nesting reed beds are closed ground. Both the reserve manager and the association hold conditions that change.

Loch of Tingwall

Loch · Fresh water

A limestone-floored loch in the fertile Tingwall valley, running north to south in a shallow trough of Dalradian marble that makes it markedly richer than Shetland's peat waters.

Loch of Vaara

Loch · Fresh water

A large, deep Westside loch on the Clousta road, sitting in open moorland with steep-sided margins and none of the shallow weedy shelf that most Shetland hill waters carry.

Lunna Ness

Headland · Salt water

A long, low peninsula reaching north-east between Dury Voe and Yell Sound, ending in broken rock and skerries with deep water close in on its outer side.

Mavis Grind

Tidal channel · Salt water

The isthmus where Northmavine joins the Mainland, a strip of rock barely thirty metres wide with the Atlantic on one side and the North Sea on the other, and shallow water on both.

Mousa Sound

Sound or strait · Salt water

The shallow channel between the Mainland at Sandwick and the uninhabited island of Mousa, with a strong stream through its narrow middle and clean sand and weed ground on both sides.

Particular to this water: Mousa is a bird reserve reached by a seasonal passenger boat. Landing, disturbance and the presence of nesting and roosting seabirds are the reserve manager's and the operator's constraints and are separate from anything about fishing.

Papil Water

Loch · Fresh water

A small, shallow loch on Fetlar lying immediately behind the sand of Tresta beach, separated from the sea by little more than the beach itself.

Punds Water

Loch · Fresh water

A Northmavine hill loch on the peat ground above Mangaster, named by the visitor guide among the roadside-accessible northern waters and carrying sea trout as well as brown.

Ronas Voe

Sea loch · Salt water

A steep-sided fjordic voe cut into the red granite of Northmavine beneath Ronas Hill, deep for most of its length with cliffs falling straight to the water on the north side and a shallow burn mouth at its head.

Scalloway harbour

Harbour wall · Salt water

Shetland's old capital and its main west-side port, set behind the shelter of the Scalloway islands with a fish market, quays and a boatyard on a shore of mixed rock and sand.

Particular to this water: The quays are the harbour authority's operational estate. Whether angling is permitted, where and when is the authority's decision and changes with vessel movements.

St Ninian's Isle and the tombolo

Island · Salt water

A tied island off the west side of the South Mainland joined to it by the largest active sand tombolo in Britain, a double-sided bar of clean shell sand that the sea works from both flanks at once.

Sullom Voe

Sea loch · Salt water

A long, deep, sheltered voe running south from Yell Sound, deep enough for the largest tankers and carrying Europe's principal North Sea oil terminal along its eastern shore.

Particular to this ground: boat traffic and being seen.

Particular to this water: The voe is a working oil port with a statutory harbour authority, controlled areas and security constraints along much of its shore. Where a person may be, on the water or on the land, is the port authority's answer and is not a matter of public right.

Sumburgh Head

Headland · Salt water

A sandstone headland at Shetland's southern tip with a lighthouse on the cliff, deep water immediately off it and the Sumburgh Roost — a violent tidal race — running past.

Particular to this ground: moving water and currents.

Symbister

Harbour wall · Salt water

Whalsay's harbour and ferry terminal, a deep, sheltered inlet on the island's south-west shore serving one of Scotland's most concentrated pelagic fishing fleets.

Particular to this water: A working fishing port and ferry terminal. Access to the quays and any angling from them are the harbour authority's decision and change with vessel movements.

The Brig of Collafirth

Tidal channel · Salt water

The narrows at the head of Collafirth in Northmavine, where the voe pinches to a channel under the road and the tide runs through between the outer firth and the shallow basin above it.

The Loch of Cliff

Loch · Fresh water

The longest loch in Unst, a narrow ribbon of water running north-east from Burrafirth between the serpentine hills of the island's north end, carrying sea trout up from the voe as well as brown.

Particular to this water: Unst runs a separate local permit from the association's general Shetland ticket. Which permit covers this water on the day is the association's answer.

The Loch of Houlland, Eshaness

Loch · Fresh water

A loch on the Eshaness headland immediately behind the basalt cliffs, holding a broch on an islet at its north end and lying on volcanic rather than peat ground, which is unusual among Shetland's specimen waters.

The Loch of Huxter

Loch · Fresh water

A large loch in the low interior of Whalsay with an Iron Age blockhouse on an islet, lying on open ground close to the road and among the most straightforward waters in the islands to reach.

Particular to this water: Whalsay runs a separate local permit from the association's general Shetland ticket. Which permit covers this water on the day is the association's answer.

The Loch of Strom

Loch · Brackish water

A long, narrow tidal loch behind Strom Ness, joined to the head of Stromness Voe through a single narrow gut that the sea runs in and out of, so it is fresh at the head and salt at the outfall.

The Lochs of Lumbister

Loch · Fresh water

A scatter of moorland waters on the RSPB ground above the Daal of Lumbister on Yell, reached across open blanket peat above a steep-sided gorge.

Particular to this water: The lochs lie on an RSPB reserve. Access, disturbance and ground-nesting bird constraints are the reserve manager's, and are separate from the association's fishing permit.

The Out Skerries

Island · Salt water

Shetland's most easterly inhabited ground, a cluster of low rocky islands and skerries thirteen kilometres off Whalsay with a sheltered natural harbour between the two main isles and deep water all round.

The Spiggie beaches

Beach · Salt water

The sand of Scousburgh and Spiggie on the Atlantic side of the South Mainland, a broad west-facing bay of clean graded sand with the Loch of Spiggie lying immediately behind the dunes.

The Upper Loch of Brouster

Loch · Fresh water

A Westside loch behind Bridge of Walls holding fish farm cages, whose rich artificial feeding has produced trout far beyond anything the surrounding peat waters grow.

Particular to this water: The loch carries commercial aquaculture. Where a rod may fish in relation to working cages and moorings is the operator's and the association's answer and is not a matter of public right.

The Vadills

Tidal channel · Salt water

A complex of shallow tidal lagoons and interconnected basins behind Sandsound Voe, filling and emptying through narrow sills so that large areas of sheltered sand and weed drain on each tide.

Particular to this water: The Vadills carry conservation designations covering the lagoon habitat itself. Constraints on access, disturbance and bait digging there are the designating body's and are independent of any fishing permit.

Uyeasound

Sound or strait · Salt water

The sheltered water between the south end of Unst and the island of Uyea, with a pier and a small settlement on the Unst shore and the tide running through the sound between them.

Weisdale Voe

Sea loch · Salt water

A long north-south voe running six kilometres inland from Stromness Voe to a burn mouth at Kergord, shallow and soft at the head where the Weisdale burn enters and deepening steadily towards the mouth.

West Sandwick

Beach · Salt water

A west-facing sand beach on Yell backed by low dunes and machair, one of the few substantial stretches of clean sand on an island otherwise of peat and rock, looking across Yell Sound to Northmavine.

Whiteness and the mouth of Stromness Voe

Headland · Salt water

The low tip of the Whiteness peninsula where Stromness Voe opens into Whiteness Voe, with the tide running hard round the point and mixed rock and sand ground on both faces.

Yell Sound

Sound or strait · Salt water

The tidal channel between the Mainland and Yell, scattered with small holms and skerries and carrying a strong stream through the narrows between them, with the Sullom Voe terminal on its southern shore.

Arisaig and the Sound of Sleat

Sound or strait · Salt water

White shell-sand bays and a maze of gneiss skerries on the mainland shore of the Sound of Sleat, with clear shallow water inshore and deep channel water beyond the islands.

Elgol and Loch Scavaig

Sea loch · Salt water

A short, spectacularly steep sea loch running into the Cuillin, with very deep water immediately off a basalt and gabbro shore and almost no shallow margin.

Tobermory and the Sound of Mull

Sound or strait · Salt water

A deep straight channel between Mull and the mainland with a sheltered bay at Tobermory, steep rock sides, strong streams down the sound and deep water throughout.

Gourdon harbour

Harbour wall · Salt water

A small working creel and line harbour on the Mearns coast, with two stone arms, a shingle beach beside it and rough rock running out to the north and south. One of the last places in Scotland where haddock were still line-caught commercially.

Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.

The Tay estuary and Broughty Ferry

Estuary · Brackish water

The mouth of the river carrying the largest freshwater discharge in Britain, with vast drying sandbanks, a strong ebb, a narrow deep channel past the castle and a large migratory run through it.

Particular to this ground: moving water and currents.

Campbeltown Loch

Sea loch · Salt water

A sheltered sea loch on the east side of Kintyre with an island across its mouth, soft mud and sand inside and rock ground round the entrance.

Dunoon and the Holy Loch

Sea loch · Salt water

A short shallow sea loch off the upper Clyde with soft mud and sand, a marina at its head, and the deeper firth channel immediately outside its mouth at Dunoon.

Girvan

Harbour wall · Salt water

A river-mouth harbour on the south Ayrshire coast over sand and shingle, looking out at Ailsa Craig's granite dome ten miles offshore.

The Kyles of Bute

Sound or strait · Salt water

A narrow winding channel separating Bute from the Cowal peninsula, with a shallow rock narrows at the Burnt Islands, deep water either side and strong streams through the constriction.

The Mull of Kintyre

Headland · Salt water

A steep hard headland at the southern tip of Kintyre, twenty kilometres from Ireland across the North Channel, with deep water close in and a powerful race running past it.

Particular to this ground: moving water and currents.

Banff and the Deveron mouth

Estuary · Brackish water

A small river mouth over gravel and sand at the head of a bay on the Moray Firth's southern shore, with rock scars either side and a migratory run through the estuary.

Buckie

Harbour wall · Salt water

A large stone and concrete harbour on the Moray Firth's southern shore, over sand and rock, with a low rocky coast of quartzite and schist running east and west.

Findhorn Bay

Bay · Brackish water

A large, almost entirely drying tidal basin behind a shingle spit, filling and emptying through a single narrow entrance with a very strong stream through it.

Fraserburgh

Harbour wall · Salt water

A large working fishing harbour at the north-eastern corner of the Scottish mainland, with concrete arms over sand and rock and the exposed Kinnaird Head immediately west.

Helmsdale

Harbour wall · Salt water

A small stone harbour at a river mouth on the Sutherland coast, over sand and rock, with a steep shingle shore and the open Moray Firth outside.

Lossiemouth

Beach · Salt water

Extensive clean sand beaches either side of the Lossie's piered mouth, backed by dunes and forest, with the shallow inner Moray Firth offshore.

Nairn

Beach · Salt water

A long clean sand beach with a small piered harbour at the river mouth, on the sheltered inner Moray Firth where the water is shallow and the range modest.

The Cromarty Firth

Estuary · Brackish water

A deep sheltered firth entered between two steep sandstone headlands — the Sutors — with soft mud and sand inside, oil-platform moorings, and resident bottlenose dolphins at the mouth.

The Dornoch Firth

Estuary · Brackish water

A shallow drying firth of sand and mud flats with a bar across its mouth, extensive saltmarsh, and one of the most important migratory salmon systems on the east coast running through it.

The Ythan estuary

Estuary · Brackish water

A narrow drying sand estuary behind the Forvie dune system, with fast channel streams, extensive mussel beds and one of the largest eider colonies in Britain on its banks.

Wick

Harbour wall · Salt water

A large stone harbour built for the herring fishery, on a hard flagstone coast of horizontally bedded Caithness sandstone with vertical cliffs and geos either side.

Loch Insh and the Spey lochs

Loch · Fresh water

A shallow loch on the Spey's course in Badenoch, joined to the extensive Insh Marshes floodplain, with peat-stained water and a natural flood storage function.

The Findhorn at Forres

River reach · Fresh water

A fast, spate-prone river running through a red sandstone gorge to a wide gravel floodplain, rising and falling faster than almost any comparable Scottish river.

The Spey at Grantown

River reach · Fresh water

The upper-middle Spey running fast over gravel through Strathspey below the Cairngorms, with long streamy glides, unstable bars and a strong summer sea trout run.

The Tay at Dunkeld

River reach · Fresh water

A broad, deep, powerful reach below the Tummel confluence running through a wooded Perthshire gorge, with rock ledges, deep holding water and a substantial spring run.

The Tummel and Loch Faskally

River reach · Fresh water

A dam-controlled river and its impounded loch at Pitlochry, with a fish pass and observation chamber, and a flow set by hydroelectric release rather than by rainfall.

Kirkcudbright Bay

Estuary · Brackish water

A drying sand and mud estuary on the Solway's northern shore, with a narrow channel, extensive intertidal flats and a large tidal range typical of the whole firth.

Loch Ryan and Stranraer

Sea loch · Salt water

A large sheltered sea loch on the north of the Rhins, with a shingle spit narrowing its entrance, soft mud and sand inside and a historic native oyster bed still present.

The Isle of Whithorn

Harbour wall · Salt water

A drying stone harbour behind a rocky promontory at the southern tip of the Machars, over greywacke rock and gravel, looking south across the Solway to the Isle of Man.

Loop Head

Headland · Salt water

A long low peninsula of layered sandstone and shale ending in vertical cliffs and stacks at the mouth of the Shannon estuary, with deep water close in and reef running off the point.

Particular to this ground: cliffs and rock platforms.

Kerrykeel Pier

Pier · Salt water

A small pier on Mulroy Bay, a sheltered and intricate sea lough in north Donegal, standing over soft ground with channels between the drying banks.

Ballybunion strand

Beach · Salt water

A long sand strand backed by cliffs and dunes at the northern edge of Kerry, divided by a rock headland, with clean sand and a bar system offshore and the Cashen river mouth to the north.

Particular to this ground: cold water shock.

Brandon Bay

Bay · Salt water

A long north-facing sand bay on the Dingle peninsula backed by dunes and by Ireland's second-highest mountain, with clean surf-graded sand, a persistent bar system and rock at both ends.

Particular to this ground: cold water shock.

Portmagee channel and Valentia

Tidal channel · Salt water

A narrow channel between Valentia Island and the mainland, with a working pier at Portmagee, rock and weed along both shores and deep water in the channel itself, opening west towards the Skelligs.

Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.

The Kenmare River

Estuary · Brackish water

A long drowned valley between two mountain peninsulas — an inlet rather than a river despite the name — with deep water, steep rock shores, sheltered inner reaches and extensive shellfish ground.

Particular to this water: Shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety and are opened and closed on monitoring results a gatherer cannot see. Neither cooking nor appearance removes a biotoxin. Check the current classification with the responsible authority before taking anything. This ground lies in or beside a marine protected area whose zoning constrains fishing, diving, anchoring and collection independently of any licence, with rules that differ between zones and boundaries that are not visible from the water.

The Moy at Ballina

River reach · Fresh water

The lowest reach of the River Moy where it runs through Ballina to the tidal water of Killala Bay: a wide, fast, gravel-bedded river confined between town walls, with a weir and a succession of streamy runs below it.

Mizen Head

Headland · Salt water

The south-westernmost point of the Irish mainland: a narrow spine of old red sandstone ending in vertical cliffs and a rock arch, with very deep water immediately offshore and no shelter anywhere.

Particular to this ground: cliffs and rock platforms.

Llanddwyn Island

Island · Salt water

A narrow tidal island of pillow lava and jasper projecting from the dunes of Newborough into Caernarfon Bay, with rock ledges, deep gullies and clean sand either side.

Particular to this ground: tides and being cut off.

Llyn Alaw

Reservoir · Fresh water

A shallow, fertile, wind-exposed lowland reservoir on Anglesey, with soft margins, extensive weed and a very long fetch across flat country.

Aberdyfi and the Dyfi estuary

Estuary · Brackish water

A large drying sand estuary behind a dune spit, with a shifting bar, extensive saltmarsh and one of the most closely studied sediment systems in Wales.

Aberystwyth

Promenade · Salt water

A shingle and sand shore beneath a promenade, between two rocky headlands of folded Silurian mudstone, with a harbour at the Rheidol mouth to the south.

Barmouth and the Mawddach estuary

Estuary · Brackish water

A steep-sided drowned valley of clean sand and gravel below the Cadair Idris range, with a bar at the mouth and unusually clear water for a British estuary.

Cardigan and the Teifi estuary

Estuary · Brackish water

A narrow drowned valley entered over a shifting sand bar, with rock ledges at the mouth, sand and mud inside, and a substantial migratory fish run.

New Quay

Harbour wall · Salt water

A stone pier sheltering a small sand bay on the only substantially north-facing stretch of the Cardigan Bay coast, over sand with reef at both headlands.

Porthmadog and the Glaslyn estuary

Estuary · Brackish water

A drying sand estuary behind the Cob embankment, with a narrow shifting entrance across Bar Mouth and extensive intertidal sand and marsh inside.

Trefor pier

Pier · Salt water

A granite quarry pier on the north Llŷn coast beneath the Yr Eifl scree slopes, standing in deep water over boulder and rock with steep ground close in.

Llyn Brenig

Reservoir · Fresh water

A large, high, exposed moorland reservoir on the Denbigh moors, with acidic peat-influenced water, a long fetch and cold conditions well into spring.

Llyn Clywedog

Reservoir · Fresh water

A deep, steeply-sided reservoir in a narrow mid-Wales valley behind a very tall concrete dam, built to regulate the Severn, with a level that varies greatly through the year.

Llyn Trawsfynydd

Reservoir · Fresh water

A shallow upland reservoir in Snowdonia built to serve a hydro and later a nuclear station, with a distinctive warmed history and an exposed moorland setting.

The Clwyd

River reach · Fresh water

A slow, silt-and-gravel lowland river running north through the Vale of Clwyd to a tidal limit at Rhuddlan, with a modest sewin run and coarse fish in its lower reaches.

The Conwy at Llanrwst

River reach · Fresh water

A fast Snowdonian river running over gravel and bedrock through the Conwy valley to a tidal limit a few miles below, with a substantial sewin run.

The Dee at Llangollen

River reach · Fresh water

A fast, rocky, regulated river running through a narrow valley below Llyn Tegid, with a horseshoe weir feeding the canal and a flow held up by the lake above.

The Usk at Abergavenny

River reach · Fresh water

A fast, clean, freestone river running over gravel and bedrock ledges through the Brecon Beacons foothills, with a celebrated wild brown trout population and an early salmon run.

Broad Haven and Little Haven

Beach · Salt water

Two adjoining sand bays in St Bride's Bay, with Old Red Sandstone and Coal Measures cliffs, rock ledges at the points and clean sand between.

Milford Haven waterway

Estuary · Brackish water

One of the deepest natural harbours in the world: a drowned valley system with deep water carried far inland, energy terminals along both shores, and extensive mud and saltmarsh in the upper reaches.

Strumble Head

Headland · Salt water

A hard igneous headland projecting into the St George's Channel, with a lighthouse islet, deep water immediately off it and a strong tidal stream past the point.

Amroth

Beach · Salt water

A sand and shingle beach where a submerged forest of ancient stumps uncovers on the lowest tides, at the western end of Carmarthen Bay.

Burry Port

Harbour wall · Salt water

A drying dock and harbour on the north shore of the Burry Inlet, with training walls over sand and mud and the great cockle beds of the inlet immediately outside.

Oxwich Bay

Bay · Salt water

A wide south-facing sand bay on Gower held between two limestone points, with dune and marsh behind, clean sand throughout and reef ground at both horns.

Pendine Sands

Beach · Salt water

Seven miles of hard, flat, very gently shelving sand, firm enough that land speed records were set on it, with the Taf and Towy estuaries at its eastern end.

Particular to this water: Part of this shore lies within an active military firing range whose schedule closes it. Check the current firing times with the range authority before going.

Port Eynon Point

Headland · Salt water

A Carboniferous limestone point at the southern tip of Gower, with a wave-cut platform, caves, deep gullies and a strong stream running past it.

Saundersfoot

Harbour wall · Salt water

A stone harbour on the sheltered Carmarthen Bay side of Pembrokeshire, over sand and Coal Measures rock, drying substantially at low water.

Swansea Bay

Bay · Salt water

A large shallow sand bay in the outer Bristol Channel, with a very large tidal range, extensive drying sand and the Tawe's training walls at its northern corner.

The Towy and Taf estuaries

Estuary · Brackish water

Three rivers meeting behind a common sand-bar mouth in Carmarthen Bay, with vast drying sandbanks, saltmarsh, cockle ground and a strong ebb through the channels.

Whiteford Point and the Burry Inlet

Estuary · Brackish water

A large drying sand and mud estuary between Gower and Llanelli, holding one of the most important cockle fisheries in Britain, with a cast-iron lighthouse standing on the sands at Whiteford.

Particular to this water: The cockle beds here are a regulated fishery and shellfish harvesting areas are classified for food safety, opened and closed on monitoring results. Check the current classification and any permit requirement with the local authority and the regulator before taking anything.

The Elan Valley reservoirs

Reservoir · Fresh water

A chain of Victorian masonry-dammed reservoirs in a steep mid-Wales valley, with cold, acidic, very soft water, steep drowned hillsides and high rainfall.

The Wye at Monmouth

River reach · Fresh water

The lower Wye below the Monnow confluence, deeper and slower than the reaches above, running towards the tidal limit through a wooded valley.

Penarth Pier

Pier · Salt water

An Edwardian pier standing over deep brown water in the inner Bristol Channel beside the Cardiff Bay barrage, with mud and rock beneath and an enormous tidal range.

Port Talbot breakwater

Breakwater · Salt water

A very long rock-armoured breakwater enclosing a deep-water tidal harbour, standing over sand in a heavily industrial stretch of the Bristol Channel.

Porthcawl breakwater

Breakwater · Salt water

A short stone breakwater with a lighthouse, at the corner of a limestone headland, standing over rock and sand where the Bristol Channel's range is already very large.

Sker Point and Rest Bay

Rock mark · Salt water

A jagged Carboniferous limestone reef running out from a dune coast, with deep gullies, drying scars and clean sand bays either side of it.

The Usk and Newport

Estuary mark · Brackish water

A deeply incised muddy tidal river in the inner Severn, with the second-largest tidal range on earth producing vertical mud banks, a transporter bridge and a strong bore-like flood.

Colwyn Bay

Bay · Salt water

A wide shallow sand bay backed by promenade and railway, with the limestone of Little Orme closing its western end and clean sand throughout.

The Dyfi at Machynlleth

River reach · Fresh water

A spate river running off the Cambrian Mountains over gravel and boulder to a wide tidal estuary, rising and falling very rapidly with hill rainfall.

The Teifi at Lampeter

River reach · Fresh water

A middle reach of one of the great Welsh sewin rivers, running over gravel between wooded banks, with the coracle tradition still associated with its lower reaches.

The Towy at Llandeilo

River reach · Fresh water

A wide, gravel-bedded meandering reach of the Towy through the Vale of Towy, with long deep pools, gravel glides, undercut banks and heavy tree cover in places.

Particular to this ground: moving water and currents, fishing alone, drowning and immersion, cold water shock.

The Foyle at Strabane

River reach · Brackish water

Where the Mourne and Finn meet to form the Foyle above a long tidal lough, carrying one of the largest salmon runs in Ireland through a cross-border catchment.

The Maine

River reach · Fresh water

A modest lowland river running south into Lough Neagh through Antrim farmland, heavily modified for drainage, with a dollaghan and salmon run using it to spawn.

The Quoile

River reach · Brackish water

A river impounded behind a tidal barrage at the head of Strangford Lough, converting a tidal estuary into a freshwater pondage with a distinctive transitional ecology.

The River Bush

River reach · Fresh water

A small, clean, gravel-bedded north Antrim river with one of the longest-running salmon research programmes in Europe on it, and a full trapping facility at Bushmills.

Larne Lough

Sea loch · Brackish water

A narrow sheltered sea lough behind the Islandmagee peninsula, with soft mud, extensive intertidal, a fast narrow entrance and a large commercial ferry port at its mouth.

Douglas Head

Headland · Salt water

The rocky headland immediately south of Douglas harbour, with slate cliffs, deep water below and the harbour breakwaters and the Battery Pier on its northern side.

Particular to this ground: cliffs and rock platforms.

Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.

Langness Point

Headland · Salt water

A low limestone and slate peninsula running south from the island's southern shore, ending in a wave-cut platform with reef and boulder ground offshore and deep water within a short cast of the point.

Particular to this ground: cliffs and rock platforms, tides and being cut off.

Peel breakwater

Breakwater · Salt water

A stone breakwater enclosing the harbour on the island's west coast, with deep water on the seaward face, sand inside the harbour and a red sandstone headland and castle island beyond it.

Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.

Port St Mary and Alfred Pier

Pier · Salt water

A sheltered harbour in the island's south-west with a substantial stone pier, deep water alongside its outer end, and rock, kelp and boulder ground on the coast towards the Calf.

Particular to this water: This is an owned and operated structure. Whether angling is allowed on it, when, from where and on what terms is the operator's decision, is frequently seasonal, and changes without notice.