Stetson Pond Beach is a small town-owned swimming beach on the southwest shore of Stetson Pond, a 93-acre natural great pond in the southwest corner of Pembroke, Massachusetts, close to the Halifax and Hanson town lines. The Town of Pembroke lists it as one of its four town beaches, along with Little Sandy Bottom Pond, Oldham Pond (Town Landing) and Furnace Pond. Because Stetson is a great pond under the state's Chapter 91 jurisdiction, the town states that it is open to members of the public regardless of residency, and no beach sticker is required.

The beach is at 350 Plymouth Street, on a narrow strip of town land between the road and the water, a short drive north of Route 58 at Monponsett and just off Route 36. Parking is a small on-site lot, so on hot weekends it pays to arrive early. The Halifax stop on the MBTA Kingston commuter rail line is roughly a kilometer to the south for anyone coming without a car. The same town parcel has a small pier and a dirt launch suited to car-top boats, canoes and kayaks.

The swim area is a modest patch of sand that runs into brown, tea-colored water; state fisheries surveys put typical clarity at about five feet. The pond averages 15 feet deep and reaches 33 feet at its deepest point, so do not assume the water stays shallow just because the beach is small. There are no lifeguards here. The town says the Stetson Pond and Furnace Pond beaches are open but not staffed and that the public swims at its own risk; Pembroke's guarded beaches are Town Landing on Oldham Pond and Little Sandy Bottom Pond, which have lifeguards from late June through Labor Day.

Use of the beach is free. The North and South Rivers Watershed Association lists the hours as dawn to dusk, and the town bylaw bars swimming from any town beach after 10 p.m. Pembroke's beach rules, which the town says are strictly enforced, ban dogs and all other pets, alcohol, glass containers, smoking, open flames, fishing, feeding waterfowl, and inner tubes, rafts or other floats that a Pembroke lifeguard has not approved. The town adds that life jackets must be Coast Guard-approved. Children under 14 must be with an adult.

The Pembroke Board of Health samples all four town beaches for bacteria each week in summer and posts the numbers online. Stetson Pond has had the cleanest recent record of the four, testing far below the 235-colony limit. Check the latest result before you go, especially after heavy rain. The pond is fed by a channel from the cranberry bogs on its north side and drains southwest into Chaffin Reservoir and the Monponsett Pond system. Some Massachusetts freshwater ponds carry fish consumption advisories for mercury or PFAS, so look up the state Department of Public Health list before eating anything you catch. Most of the shoreline is lined with homes, so stay off private frontage.

Fishing is allowed on the pond outside the beach area, and surveys have turned up largemouth bass, chain pickerel, white and yellow perch, bluegill, pumpkinseed, brown bullhead, golden shiner and American eel. Paddlers can put in at the town launch and circle the 1.5-mile shoreline. In winter the pond is used for ice skating once it freezes. The volunteer Pembroke Watershed Association monitors water quality on Stetson and the town's other ponds.