Devon, England

Eastcliff Walk slipway, Teignmouth

Launch — A concrete slipway off the Eastcliff seawall promenade, landing onto the sand and shingle beach at the north-eastern (Holcombe) end of Teignmouth's main beach, backed by red cliffs and the railway seawall.

Parking — East Cliff Car Park on Dawlish Road, run by Teignbridge District Council; pay-and-display, with RingGo accepted, and a footpath and railway footbridge down to the seafront and slipway.

Access — Reached from East Cliff car park via a footbridge over the railway onto the seawall promenade. Watercraft access the beach using a marked V-shaped lane defined by buoys; the council publishes no restriction on who may launch beyond the seasonal bather-protection exclusion (see Season).

Season — Leisure craft are excluded from the water between the marker buoys and the shore from the Friday before Whit Monday to 30 September, to protect bathers. RNLI lifeguard cover on Teignmouth's beaches runs from Whitsun to the first week of September, and does not cover the Holcombe end. The seawall and cliffs here see periodic Network Rail cliff-stabilisation and sea-defence works, which can affect access along the promenade.

Regulations — Teignbridge District Council's Seaside Pleasure Boats byelaws (Teignmouth, Shaldon and Dawlish) are the legal basis for the access lane and the seasonal bather-protection exclusion. The launch lies beyond Teignmouth Harbour Commission's jurisdiction, which runs from the river mouth to Newton Abbot, so no harbour registration applies to unpowered craft here.

Teignmouth lies on the English Channel coast, about 12 miles south of Exeter. This slipway sits on Eastcliff Walk on the open coast north-east of the town's harbour mouth, near Holcombe, launching onto the Channel rather than into the sheltered Teign Estuary.

The slipway lands on the north-eastern end of Teignmouth's beach, where the sand runs below a near-continuous red sandstone seawall carrying the railway toward Sprey Point, Holcombe and Parson's Tunnel. Paddlers here face the open Channel and Lyme Bay, with the harbour mouth and Teignmouth pier to the south-west and the Parson and Clerk rocks standing off the headland to the north-east. The beach dries to a wide sandy strand at low water but narrows to almost nothing at high water springs, so how much beach is available to land on changes through the tide.

This stretch is designated bathing water, known as Teignmouth Holcombe, rated 'Excellent' in the Environment Agency's 2025 classifications. Water quality can drop for a period after heavy rain, when a combined sewer overflow at Smugglers Lane discharges into the Holcombe Stream crossing the beach. Seals, harbour porpoise and dolphins are recorded along this coast, along with gannets, cormorants, oystercatchers and shag on the cliffs.

Nearby

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Teign Bean @ The Beach

The nearest food and drink to the slipway, at the east end of the promenade near the watercraft access lane.

Website

Longmeadow Farm Campsite

Public campsite on a working farm near Shaldon, taking tents and motorhomes with electric hook-ups; open from Good Friday to 30 September. About 3.5 km (2.2 miles) from the slipway.

Website

Conditions to check

Tidal flow

The coast here is macrotidal, referenced to the standard port of Plymouth (Devonport); the tidal range varies from about 4.8 metres on springs to as little as 1.3 metres on neaps.

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Limited exit

At high water on spring tides there is very little beach at the Eastcliff end; the sand does not start to reappear until about two hours after high water.

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Shallow or rocky

The Parson and Clerk rocks lie off the headland toward Holcombe and Dawlish, to the north-east.

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Boat traffic

A line of yellow marker buoys about 200 yards offshore marks a bather-protection zone; leisure craft must use the marked access lane rather than crossing it directly.

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Other

For an hour or so either side of high tide the seawall promenade can be wet with spray, and with a high tide and an onshore wind, waves break over the path.

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