Saunton Sands Hotel overlooks the beach at the northern end. The beach is cordoned off a few times a year and the beach used as an airstrip for military transport planes, usually Lockheed C-130 Hercules of the Royal Air Force, to practise STOL beach landings and take offs.[3] Flying kites is prohibited, accordingly, on part of the beach.[4]
Saunton Sands is popular with surfers because the beach is long, an unusually exposed westerly, and provides space for large groups. The beach has no life guards and is known to have dangerous riptides. Swimming here is dangerous and has resulted in many coast guard call outs.
On 3 August 1990, a temperature of 35.4 °C (95.7 °F) was recorded at Saunton Sands, which is the highest temperature recorded in the Devon and Cornwall region.[5]
In popular culture
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),[6] and can be seen where David Niven's character is washed up on the beach after he jumps from his burning aircraft without a parachute.