A recent study has shown that Cornwall boasts five of the top ten cleanest beaches in  Britain.

New research from BusinessWaste.co.uk analysed 425 beaches across England, Scotland and Wales to find the cleanest seaside locations ahead of the summer season.

Over the past two years the company monitored the water quality data of beaches, eventually ranking them based on the total count of e-coli a faecal indicator detected in the seawater during routine government testing.

Treyarnon bay on the North Coast of Cornwall is rated the UK's cleanest beach. The location near Constantine Bay boasted an an e-coli count of 50 which the lowest level of e-coli of the analysed beaches.

Four more Cornish sands are amongst the top ten, with Kennack Sands, Constantine Bay, Church Cove and Praa Sands East making up the numbers. Furthermore there are no Cornwall beaches rated in the top ten dirtiest beaches either.

Top ten cleanest beaches:

1. Treyarnon Bay, Cornwall - 50

2. Shell Bay, Dorset - 51

3. Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset - 53

4. Kennack Sands, Cornwall - 54

5. Durdle Door East, Dorset - 55

6. Constantine Bay, Cornwall - 56

7. Combesgate Beach, Devon - 56

8. Church Cove, Cornwall - 57

9. Poole Shore Road Beach, Dorset - 58

10. Praa Sands East, Cornwall - 67

Mark Hall, the co-founder of BusinessWaste.co.uk, commissioned the research “With summer travel back to normal this year, deciding on a beach spot may be a hot topic over the next few months. You will probably avoid beaches that are filled with litter and washed-up plastic waste, but you may not instantly think about what dangerous bacteria may be lingering in the water.

"We hope that our study on the cleanest and dirtiest beaches will help you make that all-important decision, and we urge you to stay safe in those coastal waters too!”

Businesswaste.co.uk collected official government readings for e-coli in coastal waters for England, Scotland and Wales.

The data was collected from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs from 2021 to date. Analysts at BusinessWaste.co.uk were able to rank the cleanest waters based on the lowest scores for EC presence in the data samples collected from 425 beaches. Data correct as of May 2022.