Bank Holiday weekend horror as pretty UK beach shut after 'significant' cliff fall

Cliff fall causes closure of beach in East Devon

A pretty UK beach has been closed off to the public this Bank Holiday Weekend after a 'significant' cliff fall occurred early on Sunday, May 5.

Ladram Bay beach in Devon saw a large section of its cliffs collapse at around 7am, sending rocks tumbling down onto boats and paddle boards below. Fortunately, there were no injuries reported.

The owners, Ladram Bay Holiday Park, acted swiftly to seal off all access points to the beach as a safety measure. Images and footage submitted to DevonLive reveal the scale of the collapse, with more rocks poised dangerously overhead, threatening further falls.

A spokesperson for the holiday park confirmed that the beach would remain off-limits while thorough safety checks are conducted on the iconic cliffs and the Jurassic coastline.

In addition, Ladram Bay Holiday Park has issued an urgent notice to its customers via social media, stating: "Beach closure notice. As you may be aware for several months we have been monitoring the cliff. Early this morning we sadly experienced a significant cliff fall where thankfully no-one was hurt.

Ladram Bay beach has been shut after a significant cliff fall (Image: Suzie Nixon/Devon Live)

Ladram Bay beach in Devon saw a large section of its cliffs collapse at around 7am (Image: Suzie Nixon/Devon Live)

"The beach will now remain closed until further notice. We await guidance from our geological experts and reopen the beach when they say it is safe to do so. We will update you on their findings."

Exmouth RNLI Lifeboat station stated early today that whilst a cliff fall had been reported, there had been no call outs related to incidents on the beach.

The representative said: "A customer came into our shop this morning and told us about it. They saw it happen at around 7am this morning which was fortunate as there was no-one about on the beach. Some of the rocks fells on top of boats below the cliff and this customer said he was lucky not to have parked theirs just there and it was lucky no-one was underneath it when it came down."

Some rocks fell on boats and paddle boards below (Image: Suzie Nixon/Devon Live)

Regarding the incident, a spokesperson from Ladram Bay Holiday Park stated: "We are aware of the cliff fall on our and beach. We have shut the beach and access to it is now restricted until we have sought advice from our geology consultant which we are hoping to do as quickly as we can."

The park anticipates their cliff fall specialist to be onsite by Tuesday.

Cliff falls are not a new phenomenon in the area, with the Jurassic coast in East Devon being particularly prone to them. In March, a significant cliff fall occurred in Sidmouth, with onlookers describing car-sized rocks tumbling onto the beach below.