If you love a bit of adventure and and tiny remote beaches, then visiting Iron Ladder Beach should be on your Central Coast hit list. The beach is so small that it only exists for a few hours a day, at high tide the beach vanishes completely and you’d arrive to find a cliff wall and crashing waves. I think that’s a big part of its charm, and though not the most beautiful beach on the Central Coast, it feels like a bit of a hidden treasure.
However, the ladder for which the beach is named no longer exists and to reach the small spit of sand you’ll now have to walk the plank and then scramble down a slot between the cliff walls.
If that sounds like your kind of adventure, read on.
The walk to Iron Ladder Beach
The stats
Distance: 2.6km return
Elevation gain: 120m
Difficulty: Moderate due to the final scramble
Trailhead: Box Head Trailhead, Central Coast
Summary: The walk to Iron Ladder Beach begins on a maintained track, but quickly turns off and then follows an old unmaintained path down to the beach. The turn off is very hard to spot, but once you’re on the path down it’s easy to follow.
The track is not very steep and the terrain is good until you reach the last 30 or so metres to the beach. This involves negotiating a few steps of narrow track followed by the plank and then the scramble down the slot.
A note on tides
As mentioned, Iron Ladder Beach disappears completely at high tide and is extremely slim during mid tide. You want to time your visit to coincide with low tide and preferably a slight swell (don’t visit on a rough swell).
It’s ideal to come an hour or so before low tide so you have time to enjoy the beach before the waves start rolling in and reclaiming it!
Low tide and slight swell will allow access to the beach without having to climb over so many boulders that will block your way at other times.
You can still access the beach on a mid tide, but it requires boulder scrambling and you need to watch to make sure you’re not cut off by the incoming tide, so it’s not very relaxing. In short, come for low tide, or within an hour or so at either end.
Starting the trail
The walk begins from the Box Head car park (full details below) and heads onto the fire trail leading downhill. After 220m you will pass the junction with Lobster Beach and the Flannel Flower Track on the right - this is also a great walk!
Keep to the fire trail and you will reach another junction 55m later. Turn right here, signposted for Box Head. The path becomes flat and sandy for the next 175m.
You will then come to a rocky section and after climbing a few metres uphill you will reach the top of the rocks and this is where you need to look for the track to Iron Ladder Beach (550m from the car park).
Descending to Iron Ladder Beach
The path leading down to the beach is well worn, but very difficult to spot. You need to look for the track heading away from the rocks and into the bush on your right at these coordinates: -33.5380230, 151.3452521.
When you’re a few steps along the track the path bends right and becomes very obvious and easy to follow (there’s even a few arrows painted onto rocks to reassure you that you’re on the right track). It’s a good path with the odd rocky section and descends quite gradually towards the beach.
Roughly 120m into the bush track you’ll come to an open collection of rocks with a good view out to the bay and distant headlands.
The trail heads back into the bush and briefly flattens around 200m later. This is a lovely stretch of track with gorgeous orange gum trees and little peeks out to the water. I always love walking in the bush to the sound of crashing waves, something just feels very special about it.
Roughly 100m later, or 940m into the walk, there is a slightly steeper, but very short rocky section of track. It’s not slippery (when dry) and still easy enough.
Approximately 100m after the rocky section you’ll come to a fork and head left. It gets a little more overgrown here but still easy to follow and 60m later it forks again.
You will head left here and this is where you’ll find the short narrow stretch of path leading towards the plank. This narrow section is at the edge of a drop and care should be taken, it’s around 10m long.
The plank and the slot scramble
So this is the fun part! In order to reach the beach you need to walk along a short timber plank which is placed between a gap in the cliff walls. There isn’t a drop beneath the plank itself, but there is to the right of it. The plank is not fixed and does move a little with your weight.
Now I’ll be completely honest here, I wasn’t overly keen on this idea and decided to resort to what I can only describe as the bum shuffle of shame.
Yes I sat on the plank and shuffled forwards which felt much more secure and did provide us both with a lot of laughs!
There is a second plank to use as a handhold above the main plank if walking across. The plank leans ever so slightly downhill on the way and as it turns out bum shuffling uphill is considerably more challenging than sliding slowly downhill.
That’s when we worked out what we think must be the correct method for crossing the plank and that’s to walk across sideways leaning in towards the cliff wall with your hands on the higher plank for support. Well that’s how I did it on the way back anyway and it worked really well!
However you do it, please exercise caution as it is not fixed to the cliff.
Once you’ve walked or shuffled the plank you need to scramble down the slot between the cliff walls. This is steep and again requires care. The first bit is slightly trickier as you need to climb down a bit of cliff wall that feels marginally exposed.
However a plank has been placed to use as a handhold and there is an excellent foothold in the rock wall to allow easy descent.
I didn’t like the look of it at first but when I stepped on the rock I realised it is easy - however, do not attempt this if the rock is wet as it would likely become slippery.
Once you’re down this first bit the rest of the slot is easy to negotiate, there are lots of rocks which are tiered to get down bit by bit and it’s only a few metres long.
You’ll then arrive at a series of boulders leading towards the sand.
You’ll need to climb over a couple of these, but at low tide, slight swell, you should then be able to walk around them on the sand. At other times you need to scramble over more of the boulders.
Iron Ladder Beach
Iron Ladder Beach is a tiny spit of golden sand with a dramatic headland at one end. The back of the beach is almost entirely covered in driftwood, which coupled with its remote nature gives you real Robinson Crusoe vibes!
It’s never going to win the award for the prettiest beach on the Central Coast, but if off the beaten track adventures are your thing, then it’s one you’ll want to visit!
The water around the beach is clear and a lovely pale blue, but remember to pick a day with slight swell or you’ll find it’s quite wavy.
Once you’re ready to leave the beach, or when the beach is ready for you to leave as it disappears into the sea, you’ll retrace your steps back the same way.
Just after the narrow section of path, back up at the junction before you would begin climbing uphill towards the fire trail, you could turn left and this is the path to the rock ledges that boaters use to access the beach.
There’s a rope here for people to climb up from the water to the rock ledges.
Keep them wild
Please remember to take all rubbish with you and keep these places wild and pristine - as with anywhere in the outdoors. It’s important to leave them exactly as you found them so they will remain beautiful for generations to come.
Litter tends to breed litter, so if you do spot any and are able to pick it up and dispose of it outside the national park, it will go a long way to keeping the area clean.
Getting to Iron Ladder Beach
The closest car park for Iron Ladder Beach is at the trailhead for Box Head within the Bouddi National Park, you can find it here on Google maps. The last 1.5km of the road to the car park is gravel and does have some ruts.
There are no facilities at the trailhead or anywhere on route, so please plan accordingly.
The trailhead is roughly 119km and a 1 hour 50 minute drive from Newcastle and 100km and a 1 hour 35 minute drive from Sydney.
This post may contain affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, that we will earn a small commission if you click through and decide to make a purchase. This helps towards the costs of running our website. Thanks for your support.
