Laboratory experiments (Hales, 1980) concerning the wave field near a breakwater are used to compare with a uniform asymptotic theory developed by Liu et al. (1979). The breakwater was installed on a linear plane beach, and the orientation of the breakwater is perpendicular to the bottom contours. Excellent agreement between the theory and experimental data is observed. Numerical solutions based on the asymptotic theory are also given for the wave field near a detached breakwater.