Charleston Harbor 3 (Battery Beach)

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Battery Beach is the City of Charleston's only sand beach and is located near the corner of East Bay Street and Water Street. The waters just off Battery Beach are used by the Carolina Yacht Club for sailing instruction and man overboard drills. While there isn’t any public access to the Battery Beach, the Battery is still a great place to visit! It’s a landmark defensive seawall and promenade in downtown Charleston that was used during both the Revolutionary and Civil War as a military station and place for artillery. Today, it is a historic landmark and a scenic place for locals and visitors alike to enjoy.

Get directions to this beach

COVID-19

Keep your distance from other people.

Practicing social distancing is still essential. Only go to the beach if you are able to keep 6 feet or 2 meters away from others. Follow the instructions provided by your local health authorities. If your community has asked that you remain indoors and away from others, do so. Spending a day in any crowded place is the worst thing we can do for our most vulnerable right now and will counter our efforts to curb the virus’s spread.

Water Quality

Meets water quality standards
Current Status
This status is based on the latest sample, taken on June 24th, 2022. Charleston Waterkeeper updates the status of this beach as soon as test results become available. These results were posted to Swim Guide on June 24th, 2022 at 10:24 AM.

For water quality icon legend, click:

Current Weather

30°C

Clear and sunny

Report Pollution

Monitoring Frequency

Source Information

Charleston Waterkeeper’s Recreational Water Quality Monitoring Program regularly tests the “swimmability” of several local tidal creeks and hotspots for activities like swimming, SUPing, kayaking, and sailing. Every Wednesday from May through October samples are collected and analyzed for the amount of Enterococcus bacteria present. Testing results are posted to Swim Guide every Thursday afternoon or as soon as they are available.

The State of South Carolina’s water quality standard for water-based recreational activity is 104 MPN/100 mL. Swimming and other full body contact recreational activity is not recommended in areas where the most recent testing shows Enterococcus bacteria counts of 104 MPN/100 mL or higher.

Sample site locations are color coded in Swim Guide as follows:

A “Green” site = test result of 103 MPN/100 mL or lower.
A “Red” site = test result of 104 MPN/100 mL or higher.
A “Gray” site = no test result

Water Quality Graph