Pendine Bathing Water — 2025 Season Report

Found this on the NRW dataset site. I have added their widget to the site here .

The 2026 report/figures should be out mid November.

From this dataset, ranking the 78 EXCELLENT-rated beaches by their combined bacterial levels (95th-percentile E. coli + intestinal enterococci — lower is cleaner), the five cleanest in Wales for the 2025 season are:

1. Freshwater West (Pembrokeshire) — E. coli 11.8, IE 11.8

2. Marloes Sands (Pembrokeshire) — E. coli 11.8, IE 12.8

3. Lydstep (Pembrokeshire) — E. coli 13.5, IE 13.3

4. Broad Haven (South) (Pembrokeshire) — E. coli 18.4, IE 11.8

5. Llanddwyn (Anglesey) — E. coli 17.9, IE 13.2

All figures are cfu/100ml, based on the 4-year rolling dataset (40–42 samples each, 2022–25). Four of the five are on the Pembrokeshire coast — Pendine, by comparison, ranked comfortably mid-table among Excellent sites (EC 82.7, IE 54.6).

Worth noting at the other end: two sites — Ogmore-by-Sea and Watch House Bay — were rated POOR, and a handful more (The Warren Hay-on-Wye, Rhyl Central, Cemaes) scraped only SUFFICIENT.

Pendine Bathing Water — 2025 Season Report

Based on NRW dataset DS116227 – Bathing Water Quality at Designated Beaches 2025

Summary

Pendine was classified EXCELLENT for the 2025 bathing season, the top rating under the revised Bathing Water Directive, and the same classification it held in 2024. No abnormal pollution situations or short-term pollution events were recorded at Pendine in 2025, and only one of the eight routine samples taken during the season showed a noticeably elevated result — 25 July, still well within safe limits.

Site details

BWID (NRW / Welsh Gov)	UK37800 (WG no. 37800 / NRW sampling point 39010)
Bathing water name	Pendine
Location	51.7416°N, –4.5532°W (ETRS89)
Local authority area	Sir Gaerfyrddin – Carmarthenshire
River basin district	Western Wales
Receiving waterbody	Carmarthen Bay (GB611008590002)
Water category	Coastal
2025 bathing season	15 May – 30 September 2025
Status	Open / not closed

2025 classification result

The classification is not based on a single season: it is calculated from the 95th (and, where relevant, 90th) percentile of the last four years of samples — 40 samples collected between 2022 and 2025 at Pendine. Both bacterial indicators must independently meet a threshold; the worse of the two determines the final classification.

Indicator	Pendine 2025	Excellent threshold
95th percentile E. coli (cfu/100ml)	82.7	< 250
95th percentile intestinal enterococci (cfu/100ml)	54.6	< 100
90th percentile E. coli (cfu/100ml)	59.4	–
90th percentile intestinal enterococci (cfu/100ml)	40.7	–
Samples in assessment (2022–25)	40	–

Both indicators sit comfortably inside the Excellent band — E. coli at 33% of the limit and intestinal enterococci at 55% of the limit — with no step-change or discounting/replacement applied to the current season's data.

2025 season — individual samples

Eight routine compliance samples were taken at Pendine across the 2025 season (15 May – 30 September). A reported value of 10 is the laboratory's reporting floor (“less than 10”), not a precise count.

Sample date	E. coli (cfu/100ml)	Intestinal enterococci (cfu/100ml)
09 May 2025	10	10
19 May 2025	45	18
06 Jun 2025	10	10
24 Jun 2025	10	10
09 Jul 2025	10	10
25 Jul 2025	200	160
12 Aug 2025	45	18
01 Sep 2025	45	10

The 25 July sample (200 E. coli / 160 IE) is the season's outlier — roughly 4–8× the other samples — but still well inside the Excellent 95th-percentile thresholds (250 / 100), and no short-term pollution or abnormal situation event was logged against Pendine (UK37800) in the source dataset around that date or at any other point in 2025, unlike several other sites on the Carmarthenshire/Pembrokeshire coast that season.

Regional context — Carmarthen Bay group

Pendine sits within the Carmarthen Bay waterbody group alongside eleven other designated beaches spanning Gower to Tenby. Nine of the twelve achieved Excellent in 2025; two (Amroth Central, Tenby North) achieved Good; one (Wiseman's Bridge) achieved only Sufficient, the lowest pass grade. Pembrey, the only other Carmarthenshire-administered beach in the dataset, also achieved Excellent.

Bathing water	2025 classification	95th %ile E. coli	95th %ile IE
Port Eynon Bay	EXCELLENT	75.8	64.2
Rhossili	EXCELLENT	169.9	39.2
Pendine	EXCELLENT	82.7	54.6
Amroth Central	GOOD	70.2	111.8
Wiseman's Bridge	SUFFICIENT	133.1	202.6
Coppet Hall	EXCELLENT	55.4	46.8
Saundersfoot	EXCELLENT	61.3	58.5
Tenby North	GOOD	72.3	102.6
Castle Beach, Tenby	EXCELLENT	101.2	84.0
Tenby South	EXCELLENT	67.4	57.9
Penally	EXCELLENT	30.8	36.0
Lydstep	EXCELLENT	13.5	13.3

Source and notes

• Source: NRW dataset DS116227, “Bathing Water Quality at Designated Beaches 2025”, as supplied (six sheets: Bathing Water Sites, Seasonal Info, Monitoring Results, Abnormal Situations, Short Term Pollution, Bathing Water Classification).

• Cross-checked against Natural Resources Wales' published Wales Bathing Water Report 2025, which independently confirms Pendine's Excellent classification for 2025 (unchanged from 2024).

• Classification thresholds (coastal waters, cfu/100ml): Excellent – E. coli <250 / IE <100 (95th percentile); Good – E. coli <500 / IE <200 (95th percentile); Sufficient – E. coli <500 / IE <185 (90th percentile); Poor – worse than Sufficient.

• The dataset does not attribute the 25 July spike to a specific source (e.g. rainfall, storm overflow discharge); it is included here for completeness, as it is the only notable deviation in the 2025 samples.