5. Dawlish Warren Beach
Update - August 2021
Storm damage has eroded the dune paths between groyne 10 and groyne 15. Regrettably there is no access to the bird hide for the foreseeable future. All access to and from Warren Point is via the beach only with some risk of being cut off around high water. Please read site notices and plan your visit.
Dawlish Warren prides itself on being one of the UK's finest beach resorts. Here you'll find a long beach, flanked by distinctive sand dunes and an internationally recognised nature reserve.
The Warren is designated as a Special Area of Conservation and boasts a wide variety of coastal habits, supporting over 600 different species of flowering plants and dune grasslands.
The Warren is a key part the Exe Estuary Special Protection Area and Ramsar site - an area of international importance for wildlife. It provides the main roosting site for huge numbers of wading birds and wildfowl that spend the autumn and winter on the Estuary. The Warren is also designated as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) for its dune grassland, humid dune slacks and the tiny, rare 'petalwort' that grows there. As well as fixed and mobile dunes, there are meadows, copses, reedbeds, ponds and saltmarsh here - and the whole sandspit is of considerable geomorphological interest.
If you're planning to visit Dawlish Warren, please read the Dawlish Warren code.
What's on offer?
- award-winning family beach
- safe open spaces for family recreation
- shops, cafes and bars
- National Nature Reserve
- beach hut hire
- deck chair hire
Local services
- RNLI beach lifeguards service (weekends between Whitsun and the end of June then daily in July and August)
- parking
- public/disabled toilets, baby changing and shower
- mainline train station 5 minute walk from the beach
Dogs
- dogs are permitted between groyne 3 and 9 all year round
Sorry, to protect the very special environment
- dogs are not permitted beyond groyne 9 all year round
- no powered watercraft
- no fires or BBQs
- no horse riding
- no metal detecting
- no collecting driftwood