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Lincolnshire, England

Tower Esplanade slipway, Skegness

LaunchOSM tags this point leisure=slipway, giving onto Skegness's sandy beach a short distance from the town's RNLI lifeboat station on Tower Esplanade.
ParkingEast Lindsey District Council operates pay-and-display seafront car parks near Tower Esplanade, including the Festival Car Park and the Swimming Pool car park, with charges set by the council's parking order.
AccessTower Esplanade is closed to public vehicles from the mini-roundabout by the Embassy Centre; road access to the Festival Car Park is via Princes Parade instead. The beach is reached on foot from the promenade.
SeasonRNLI lifeguards patrol Skegness beach daily from the second-to-last weekend in May until the start of September. Skegness is a designated bathing water with a season running from mid-May to the end of September, when the Environment Agency samples water quality weekly.
RegulationsEast Lindsey District Council holds no byelaws restricting unpowered craft on this beach, and its own visitor guidance names paddling among the activities the beach is used for. About three and a half miles south, the coast enters the Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Area and Ramsar site, with the surrounding waters part of the Wash and North Norfolk Coast Special Area of Conservation.

A slipway on Skegness's central seafront near Tower Esplanade, a short distance from the town's RNLI lifeboat station, on the open Lincolnshire coast where the shoreline runs south towards Gibraltar Point and the entrance to The Wash.

This stretch of Skegness's seafront is a broad, gently shelving beach of firm sand that widens considerably at low water, with large areas uncovering across a macrotidal range; the Admiralty lists Skegness as a secondary port referenced to Immingham. Sediment moves south along this open coast by longshore drift, building offshore sandbanks that run at a slight angle to the shore and feeding the growing spit at Gibraltar Point, roughly three and a half miles south, where the shoreline turns into The Wash.

Close by on Tower Esplanade, the Skegness RNLI lifeboat station launches its inshore lifeboat directly across the beach, and the Skegness Boating Club works this stretch of foreshore from a compound near Princes Parade. A rock-armour revetment protects the promenade nearby.

About three and a half miles south, the coast enters the Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve, roughly 437 hectares owned by Lincolnshire County Council and East Lindsey District Council and managed by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust. It is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Area and Ramsar site, with the surrounding waters part of the Wash and North Norfolk Coast Special Area of Conservation, holding terns, waders and seals.

Nearby

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Charlies Shellfish Bar

Foreshore kiosk on Tower Esplanade, a couple of hundred metres from the launch.

Lighthouse Coffee Bar

Cafe by the Skegness Boating Lake on Tower Esplanade, a couple of hundred metres from the launch.

Skegness Sands Touring Site

Caravan and Motorhome Club touring site off Winthorpe Avenue, open to members and non-members year-round.

Website

Conditions to check

Tidal flow

Macrotidal open coast; a large tidal range uncovers extensive areas of sand at low water, and sediment moving south along the shore builds offshore sandbanks running at a slight angle to the coast.

Source
Shallow or rocky

Rock-armour sea defences have been installed along this stretch of the Skegness foreshore.

Source
Boat traffic

The Skegness RNLI inshore lifeboat launches directly across the beach from the lifeboat station on Tower Esplanade, and the Skegness Boating Club works this stretch of foreshore from a compound near Princes Parade.

Source
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