© Matt O'Brien


THE BITCHES WHITEWATER PLAYSPOT, RAMSEY SOUND, PEMBROKESHIRE


If you learn one thing from this website, make sure it's that you know High and Low Water in Ramsey Sound DO NOT coincide with a slack current!

The complexity of the landscape and hydrology means that the current very rarely stops at all. Most paddlers just going to the Bitches, rather than touring the area, choose to paddle out while the current is weak, warming up as the speed of water increases. The middle 2 hours of the incoming tide are when it is flowing at its most powerful. Use the diagram below in conjunction with a Milford Haven tide table to choose the best level for your group. REMEMBER. The strongest, fastest flow at the Bitches coincides with the time of high water. See below.

North going flood tide starts: HW Milford -3hrs 25’ until 3 hrs after
South going ebb tide starts: HW Milford +3hrs until 3hrs 25' after

Twice a day every day, the Atlantic Ocean pushes north into the Irish Sea as though it is trying to fill the basin that stretches from St. Davids Head to the North Channel. This filling of the Irish Sea/ Cardigan Bay creates the currents around the Pembrokeshire coastline and is unstoppable; making the most reliable white water in the UK.


click images to enlarge

Ramsey Island is at the bottom edge of this basin, just where the sea is squeezed between Wales and Ireland. Running south-north between the island and the mainland is Ramsey Sound; just half a mile wide at the narrowest point. The enclosing walls squeeze the flow of water and it increases speed to keep pace with its sister current on the west side of Ramsey.

This tidal race alone, moving at up to 7 knots (just over 13 kmh), would create significant standing waves. The Bitches (and Whelps, to be correct) are the line of rocks jutting out from Ramsey Island into the sound; reaching half way across to the mainland. The sudden change in geology forms a ridge that the water flows up and over, falling into a trough on the far side. This overfall increases water speed further still and the associated drop in height creates white water recognisable to a river paddler – stoppers, waves, eddies and boils. Speeds in excess of 18 knots (sorry land lubbers, that’s 20mph) have been measured at the narrowest point. If anyone knows how many cubic metres/ second it's doing, let me know!

Once the basin is filled, roughly every 6 hours or so, the plug is pulled and it has to rushes south again back into to the Atlantic but because of the shape of the Welsh coast at the bottom edge of Cardigan Bay, the current shoots off-shore and west of Ramsey, leaving the Sound, and The Bitches, a much quieter place.

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