Situated on the north coast between Newquay and Padstow, Harlyn Bay hosts a north facing beach. The beach is gently sloping so is quite wide at low tide.

The top of the sand dune is made over to car parking (Photo 3). There are two tiers of parking, the uppermost being more grassy

The sand is coarse.

There is some limited dune between the lower car park and stream, by the Surf Life Saving Club building.

On the left hand side (west), the bay is bounded by rock cliff and in places there are glacial Head deposits with sand on top.
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The Harlyn Water stream flows into the bay, entering under a road bridge.

On the left bank of the Harlyn Water stream, upstream of the road bridge, new development is under way on sand and on the edge of the fluvial flood zone.

On the left hand side (west) of the beach, bordering areas are fenced off to delineate private garden boundaries. There are some minor private defences.