Paddy's Hole slipway
Paddy's Hole is a small, artificial harbour built from slag on the south side of the Tees estuary at South Gare, near Warrenby. It is tidal, drying to mud at low water and leaving moored boats aground until the tide returns.
Paddy's Hole sits inside the South Gare breakwater, a training wall built from blast furnace slag between 1861 and 1888 to canalise the Tees and keep its shipping channel clear. At the breakwater's seaward end stands the Grade II listed South Gare Lighthouse, a 13-metre cast-iron tower built in 1884 and still operated by PD Ports, and the only privately owned lighthouse in England. Partly exposed at low tide near the breakwater are three slag banks known locally as the German Charlies.
The hole itself is a working fishing harbour, with small boats and fishing craft moored among timber huts and left aground in the mud between tides. It lies immediately south of the dredged, buoyed entrance to the Tees, 732 metres wide, used by around 4,100 ship movements a year and kept clear by regular dredging.
The surrounding estuary carries several conservation designations: the South Gare and Coatham Sands Site of Special Scientific Interest and, more widely, the Teesmouth and Cleveland Coast Special Protection Area and Ramsar site, with parts inside the Teesmouth National Nature Reserve managed by Natural England. Its intertidal mudflats and dunes support seals and large numbers of wading and migratory birds, and the base-rich slag soils support lime-loving plants including marsh orchids.
Conditions to check
Paddy's Hole dries to mud at low tide, with boats left aground until the tide returns.
SourceTidal streams at the Tees entrance are weak in the open approach, around 0.4 to 0.6 knots at springs, but strengthen to around 1.0 to 1.4 knots at springs within the dredged entrance channel; neap rates run roughly half these figures.
SourceA working fishing harbour with moored small craft, beside a commercial shipping channel; the harbour authority records around 4,100 ship movements a year, with a pilot station based at South Gare.
SourceThree slag banks near the breakwater, known locally as the German Charlies, are partly exposed at low tide.
SourceThe Tees entrance between South Gare and North Gare is 732 metres wide; the channel is buoyed, dredged and kept clear by regular dredging.
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