Budle Bay is a tidal lagoon and only works 2.5 hrs either side of high tide. It is almost entirely flat, especially in N wind, and only picks up chop in strong W wind. There are also sometimes tidal rips and bores that appear at varying states of the tide. On the north side of the lagoon the water is about 1-3 ft deep, so perfect flat water.
The beach can be extremely narrow and tricky to launch from at high tide, sometimes not even enough to accommodate the width of a kite. Launching is OK though as the water is quite shallow and you can walk out to launch. At mid-tide there is quite a bit of space. There are some razor shells and so on, so need to be a bit careful.
Driving is the only way. It's about 5min drive off the A1, on the B1342 (signposted Bamburgh Castle). There's a little space to park at the top of the lane at Kiln Point. Walk down the track (it gets muddy at the bottom). Turn right when you hit the Bay, walk along the shore for about 5min until the rocks/pebbles give way to sand. This is the usual launch point.
Kiting is banned from end of October to end of April! Do not kite at Budle Bay at these times! This is because of the migratory bird population over winter. The entire area from Budle up to Lindisfarne is off limits during this period.
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