Lancashire, England

Norbreck put-in (Bispham)

Launch — The slipway drops directly from Queens Promenade onto the beach at Norbreck.

Parking — No public car park adjoins the slipway; parking on this stretch of Queens Promenade is on-street. The parking areas mapped closest to the slipway are marked private or customers-only, and the neighbouring Norbreck Castle Hotel's car park requires visitors to register at reception; whether it is open to non-hotel visitors is not stated.

Access — The slipway is reached directly from Queens Promenade. Blackpool Council publishes no permit, booking requirement or launching restriction for unpowered craft on this stretch of foreshore.

Regulations — Blackpool Council publishes no watercraft-launching permit or charge for unpowered craft on this stretch of foreshore. The Town Centre and Promenade Public Spaces Protection Order runs only as far north as Red Bank Road, south of Norbreck, and does not apply here; it addresses conduct such as alcohol and encampments, not watercraft.

This slipway opens onto the Irish Sea at Norbreck, a residential stretch of Blackpool's coast between Bispham and Cleveleys. Norbreck appears in Blackpool Council's coastal records for its erosion history, underlining that this is an actively managed, eroding shoreline rather than a sheltered launch.

Blackpool Council has documented this stretch of coast as eroding for well over a century: the cliffs at Norbreck were reported eroding at about 3 yards (2.7 metres) a year as early as 1911. The frontage here is held behind a sea wall that the council has a statutory duty to maintain under the Coastal Protection Act.

The launch opens onto Liverpool Bay, the arm of the Irish Sea into which the rivers Mersey, Dee, Ribble, Alt and Clwyd all drain. The bay was the site of the UK's first major offshore wind farm, North Hoyle, and has since seen some of the largest wind turbines built anywhere in the world installed further out.

Nearby

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Anne's Tea Rooms

Cafe on Red Bank Road, Blackpool, about 0.8km (0.5 miles) from the slipway.

Bispham Station Cafe

Cafe on Queens Promenade, about 0.9km (0.5 miles) south of the slipway.

Newton Hall Holiday Park

Touring caravan and motorhome holiday park on Staining Road, about 5km (3 miles) inland; open to the public.

Website

Conditions to check

Shallow or rocky

Blackpool Council is building rock groynes into the beach either side of Norbreck under the Bispham Coast Protection Scheme; each is a boulder structure running from the beach out into the sea.

Source

Tidal flow

The Mersey estuary system, which this coast lies within reach of, has the second-highest tidal range in the UK: about 4 metres at neaps to 10 metres at springs, referenced to the Liverpool standard port.

Source

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Location data

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