About St Audries Bay Waterfall
St Audries Bay Waterfall is a seasonal waterfall dropping right onto a tidal beach facing the Bristol Channel in Somerset County in the South West of England.
This was one of a handful of waterfalls that we missed in the south of the country on our first trip to the UK in 2014, and it did make me wonder how on earth did we manage to miss it?
In any case, when we finally had the opportunity to come back to this part of England, we made it a point to target this waterfall (as well as others that we missed in southwest England).
So before we made the attempt to visit the St Audries Bay Waterfall, we first had to check the tides because they must not be high in order to reach the base of the waterfall.
In order to time our visit, I checked the historic tide times table for the year of our visit in (late June) 2024.
Once I determined what the low tide times would be for the possible date of our visit, I then planned out the time of our arrival to St Audries Bay accordingly.
It turned out that our visit happened to be about an hour after the lowest tide at 1.91m at 8:06am, where we still had plenty of time to visit the base of the waterfall.
For the record, high tide turned out to be at 10.41m at 1:51am and again at 10m high at 2:20pm.
Anyways, once we got the timing down, we then had to drive to its nearest car park (see directions below).
Then, we went on a well-signed and developed path downhill from the small hamlet of St Audries Bay going about 600-800m to the beach.
Down at the beach, we then followed the base of the cliffs to our right, where it looked like there was some retaining wall infrastructure left to the elements.
Looking out towards the rocky beach and the water, there were also what appeared to be wooden poles that might have been remnants of docks or piers.
A local that I met here told me that this used to be a pretty busy port (known as “The Slip” as shown on an 1888 map) doing business across the Bristol Channel with Wales.
He further went on to say that there are old pictures of the harbour in its heyday at one of the accommodations in St Audries Bay.
In any case, after going around a corner of the cliffs and some minor side spring-fed seepage, we were finally at the base of the St Audries Bay Waterfall.
It had a bit of a light (but still satisfactory) flow as of our late June 2024 visit, but we quickly learned that we had to scramble a bit away from the falls to capture its entire height in our pictures.
As we did this, we couldn’t help but notice that there were these weird striated insects or amphibious sea life (almost reminding me of the ancient fossils of beetles or troglobytes) scurrying about.
It was all part of the ambience of the St Audries Bay Waterfall, and the best part of the experience was that we were pretty much all alone throughout the hour or so we spent away from the car.
After having our fill, we went back up the way we came though we probably could have lingered a bit longer at the hamlet of St Audries Bay, where it looked like there were some tourist amenities.
Authorities
The St Audries Bay Waterfall resides in St Audries Bay (West Quantoxhead) near the town of Taunton in Somerset County, England. It is not clear if there’s an official governing body that presides over these waterfalls. However, it seems like local landowners and town officials from Taunton and St Audries Bay have been responsible for signs and road/trail infrastructure. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Somerset Tourism website.
St Audries Bay Waterfall resides in the hamlet of St Audries Bay (or West Quantoxhead) near the town of Taunton.
We actually drove here from Oxford via Bridgwater and to Ilfracombe via Dunster.
So I’ll describe how we did these drives.
Driving from Oxford to St Audries Bay
From Oxford, we drove north on the city’s main drag (A4144) for about 4 miles before turning left onto the A40 (2nd exit at the roundabout).
Then, we drove about 26 miles west on the A40 before turning left to leave the A40 to go onto the A436.
We then continued on the A436 and then the A417 Roads for about 10 miles (following the signs for the M5 South West).
Next, we drove on the M5 southbound for about 63 miles before taking the A39 exit to Glastonbury/A38/Bridgwater.
From there, we pretty much followed the signs for the A38/A39 towards Bridgwater, and then went through the town to remain on the A38/A39 heading west towards Taunton/Minehead.
Eventually after about 19 miles on the A39 since leaving the M5 Motorway, we reached a signed turnoff on the right for Doniford.
From there, we left the A39 and drove on a narrow two-lane road for about 0.5-mile before turnign right at the next turnoff towards St Audries Bay.
Finally, we took this turnoff and drove the final 0.5-mile on a single-lane road to a paid gravel car park on the right.
Overall, this drive took us a little over 2.5 hours.
Driving from Ilfracombe to St Audries Bay
From Ilfracombe, the most straightforward route would be to A351 about 2 miles south to its junction with the A3123.
Then, we’d head east on the A3123 for about 7 miles to its junction with the A399, and then we’d continue on the A399 for another 2.4 miles to the A39.
Turning left onto the A39, we’d then drive about 38 miles to a sharp turnoff on the left (roughly 2 miles east of the town of Willton).
Once on the turnoff, we’d then drive this narrow two-lane road for about 0.5-mile before turning right at the next turnoff towards St Audries Bay.
Then, we’d drive the final 0.5-mile on a single-lane road to a paid car park on the right.
Overall, this drive would take between 1.5-2 hours.
For context, West Quantoxhead is about 16 miles (about 30 minutes drive) northwest of Taunton, about 31 miles (over an hour drive) west of Glastonbury, about 46 miles (over an hour drive) north of Exeter, 52 miles (over an hour drive) southwest of Bristol, 47 miles (about 1.5 hours drive) east of Ilfracombe, 64 miles (over 1.5 hours drive southwest of Bath, and 171 miles (over 3.5 hours drive) west of London.
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360 degree sweep set back from the tip of the rock containing the waterfall revealing the beach as well as details of the waterfall itself
360 degree sweep showing the beach at low tide while also showing some smaller segments of the waterfall before focusing on the main segment towards the end
360 degree sweep from a more frontal look at the waterfall revealing the surrounding beach at low tide as well as details about the main falls itself
Brief 360 degree sweep in the opposite direction taken from one of the lower shelves revealing striations in the surrounding sea cliffs as well as the beach at low tide and of course the falls itself
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