Saunton Sands

Saunton Sands on a wet and windy day

Saunton Sands is a beach in the English village of Saunton on the North Devon coast near Braunton, popular as a longboard surfing location. Its southern end, 'Crow Point', lies at mouth of the River Taw estuary. It's part of the Taw estuary Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Braunton Burrows.

A bright white hotel, 'Saunton Sands Hotel', overlooks the beach at the northern end, which, in this part of the beach, is a designated military training area. It is cordoned off a few times a year and the beach is converted into an air strip for the military transport planes, usually C-130 Hercules, of the Royal Air Force to practice STOL beach landing and take off. There are permanent restrictions for flying kites in this part of the beach.

Saunton Sands was used as a location for the 1946 Powell and Pressburger film A Matter of Life and Death (sometimes called Stairway to Heaven), and can be seen where David Niven's character is originally washed up on the beach after he jumps from his plane without a parachute - and survives.

The beach was also used as a location for the Second World War Anzio landings scenes in the 1982 Pink Floyd film The Wall and later as the backdrop for over 700 wrought iron hospital beds on the cover of their 1987 album A Momentary Lapse of Reason.

In the late 90s the beach was also used for the video for the Robbie Williams song "Angels".

Saunton sands is popular with many surfers purely because the beach is so long and provides adequate space for large groups.

On 3 August 1990, a temperature of 35.4 °C (95.7 °F) was recorded at Saunton Sands, which is the hottest temperature to be recorded in the south-west.