Beaches and harbourBeaches near West Marden: West Wittering, East Head, Bosham and Emsworth

West Wittering and East Head

West Wittering is the sandy beach people mean when they say they are going to the Witterings. It is privately owned, run by the West Wittering Estate, and holds the Solent Water Quality Award. The sand shelves gently, which is why families like it.

The parking rules catch people out. You can pre-book up to 11pm the night before. You cannot pre-book on the day. Otherwise you pay at the machine or online within 48 hours of leaving, but on a sunny weekend or in the school holidays cars without a booking are turned away once the car park is full, and there is no other parking nearby. Leaving and coming back counts as a second visit. The car park is open from 6:30am to 8:30pm. Book on the estate’s parking page. It costs less in winter.

In July and August, leave the farm by 8:30am.

East Head is the sand-dune spit at the mouth of Chichester Harbour, owned by the National Trust. There is no separate car park. You walk from the far western end of the West Wittering car park. The dunes are a rare and fragile habitat, so keep out of the roped-off areas.

Bosham and Emsworth

Emsworth is the nearest salt water, about 7 miles and 15 minutes from the farm, just over the Hampshire border. It was the main port of Chichester Harbour in the 18th and 19th centuries and famous for oysters until 1902. P. G. Wodehouse lived here from 1904 to 1914, which is where Lord Emsworth got his name, and the volunteer-run Emsworth Museum has a display about him.

Bosham is about 9 miles and 20 minutes. Holy Trinity Church appears in the Bayeux Tapestry, which shows Harold at Bosham before he sailed in 1064. One warning: Shore Road floods at every high tide. Park in the village car park and never on the shore road.

Swimming and paddleboarding

Swim at West Wittering. Chichester Harbour is not a designated bathing water, and the Harbour Conservancy says much of it is unsuitable for swimming. Sewage releases are a known problem there, with improvement works due to finish in summer 2027. We would not swim in the harbour, and we would rather tell you so.

The harbour is good for being on the water rather than in it. Group paddleboard lessons run at Bosham, from £38 a person at the last price we saw, and there is board hire on the Chichester Canal at Hunston. Most operators stop for the winter and 2027 prices are not out, so check before you go. Everything in the harbour is tidal, so go around high water, and paddlers must pay harbour dues to the Conservancy.

Dogs on the beach

At West Wittering, dogs are banned from the main bathing beach in front of the beach huts, between groynes 14a and 18, from May to 14 September. Those are the 2026 dates and 2027 may differ. They are allowed on the rest of the beach all year, and on leads in the dunes at East Head. In winter the whole beach is open to them.

From the farm

We are in the Downs, not on the coast, and that is the point for most of our guests: a day on the sand, then home to a quiet valley, the pool and a barbecue. The heated outdoor pool is open from mid-June to early September, Monday to Saturday, for our guests only.

Families tend to take The Old Stables, with its gated courtyard, or Barley Cottage, which has a king and a twin bedroom and takes one dog. There is more on our family holidays page.