Coffin’s Beach

Coffin’s beach is almost 2 miles of white fine powder sand — surrounded by beautiful white sand dunes. It is a very flat beach and when the tide goes out the beach is well over 500 feet deep and it exposes a large multi acre submerged rock (called Bald Rocks) where kids and adults alike can explore and find lobster, crabs, star fish, sea urchins, sea clams, horseshoe crabs.
The beach is so vast and expansive you can literally sit 100 yards away from the next person if you so choose. Parking is an issue — but you can park at the next door public beach Wingaersheek and walk over the rocks that separate the private beach from the smaller public beach. At low tide you can walk in the sand.
Sand bars allow you to walk out 100’s of yards at low tide and be in only waist deep water. This beach is very kid friendly as there is no real current and no rip tide. Access in and out are limited so that a child who isn’t being watched has little opportunity to leave the vicinity.
Overall I would say this is the best beach I have had the opportunity to visit and it’s a hidden treasure as few people other then the local residents use this natural wonder. Another thing to see is the 1000’s of sand dollars which are easy to find at low tide — especially in the sprint and early summer before the tourists and summer residents collect them! Just be sure not to take the black ones as they are still alive!

Coffins Beach is a beautiful, calm stretch of private beach with almost no waves, but there is no parking and no public access as the road along the beach is private with guards manning the only narrow access road. The residents who live along the beach guard it vigilantly and come out and confront strangers… happened to me. It can be accessed from Wingaersheek Beach only at super low tide and if you don’t get back to Wingaersheek in about half an hour you’d have to walk across sharp barnacled rocks or walk around about a mile and a half of narrow and very windy roads. The mirror image of Coffins is Cranes Beach in Ipswich across the Essex River, and it has all the essential amenities like a bathhouse and concessions.

I love this beach and it is my favorite beach in New England. The beach is impeccably clean because most of it is maintained by private beach associations. The sand is beautifully fine and soft, unlike many of the rocky beaches in New England. I have passed out a great number of times in this sand with a hangover… nothing feels better when working off a night of drinks.
Leave your boogie board at home, because there are no waves at this beach.
It is wonderful to walk this beach. It is about a mile and a half from end to end. At low tide you can walk over to Wingaersheek beach and head out on the sand bar. Just be sure to make it back relatively quick since the tide comes in fast.
The water doesn’t get deep fast. In fact at low tide you have to walk very far out to get over your waist. This is really good for small children, but it can get annoying for grown ups who just want to cool off and not walk a half mile to get deep enough. There is also no undertow at all and this is also great to keep kids from getting swept out to sea.
The beach is not crowded at all since the people that come are mainly residents and vacationers and there is no public parking. What you lack in eye candy is made up by not having to listen to other people’s pain in the ass kids. If you do have some brats nearby, there is tons of room to move your stuff to.
There are no concession stands, public parking, public access or lifeguards, but there is peace, beauty and quiet.
The only warning is that like other beaches beside salt marches, the beach gets green head flies from the first full moon in July until the first full moon in August. For some reason between those two full moons… these huge vampire flies infest the Gloucester and Ipswich beaches.
If you forget your bug spray, you might as well leave… they suck that much and they can ruin a trip for the unprepared. They are the most painful bitches that will have even the most reserved cursing like Ralphie in the Christmas Story… they are relentless just like horseflies but the bite is more painful.

hands down the cleanest beach I have ever been to. ok, maybe Hawaii has some that are this clean, but seriously this is amazing. No one goes here unless you have a home, boat over, or walk over from Wingaersheek at low tide. so it is pretty empty. Warm water, soft sand, huge sandbars, long stretches of beach etc. this is one of the best I have ever been to!