Pronounced “Heel” this charming little beach on the eastern fringes of Ilfracombe is a lovely place to swim.
While it’s not the closest beach to Ilfracombe centre, it’s probably the nicest and safest sandy beach with close proximity to the town.
Hele Bay beach is situated in the adjacent bay to Ilfracombe harbour and is separated from it by a large promontory hill called Hillsborough Nature Reserve that contains an iron age hill fort. Hillsborough is locally known as the sleeping elephant (!) and has the most spectacular views of Ilfracombe Harbour and its wonderful Verity statue by Damien Hurst. The South West Coast Path connects Hele Bay with Ilfracombe and is a steep and rocky, but satisfying walk. This is an area of outstanding natural beauty.
Hele Bay is technically its own village and boasts a lovely cafe and grade I listed Mill dating from the 1500s that serves delicious scones made with their own grown and milled flour.
Hele Bay village was mentioned in the Domesday book in 1066 so while it is a small place it has a long history.
The beach itself seems small in high tide and is sandy and shingle so it’s nice to walk across. The bay is very sheltered and so the water is relatively calm and provide a gently shelving slope making swimming and paddling with kids very safe. You can also paddle board and kayak from this beach although the current near to the open water are incredibly powerful and many times a week the fantastic RNLI crew are called out to rescue stranded paddle boarders so it is recommended to only paddle as the tide is coming in, don’t attempt to paddle to neighbouring bays, and always have your phone in a waterproof case in case of difficulties.
As the tide goes out at Hele Bay, the jagged rocks so prevalent along the north Devon coast are revealed. This creates a wonderful area to explore and clamber over the rocks- they are sharp though so don’t go barefoot!
At the lowest point of the tide you can walk out around the headland of Hillsborough and as you look west towards Ilfracombe there are some wonderful jagged rocks with a “window”. This makes amazing photography at sunset and just makes you realise how stunning this coastline really is.
Hele Bay has a small paying car park and a tiny amount of free parking on the street. There is also a public toilet on the beach.
