Player’s Beach

Players Beach

Photo: Peter Bruce

Around 1.5km west of Ryde Pier, close inshore, is an arc of rocks, hooking into the west that forms a sheltered natural drying harbour for small boats on Players Beach. The beach is named after Thomas Player who bought and developed much of the farmland of Upper Ryde in the early 1700s, eventually merging it with the fishing and boatbuilding hamlet of Lower Ryde. There are two obstructions extending off – a pipeline and Binstead Boom, both of which can be avoided by passing to seaward of a red can marking the end of the pipeline.