Forces on a monopile from a nonlinear irregular unidirectional wave model are investigated. Two seabed profiles of different slopes are considered. Morison’s equation is used to investigate the forcing from fully nonlinear irregular waves and to compare the results with those obtained from linear wave theory and with stream function wave theory. The latter of these theories is only valid on a flat bed. The three predictions of wave forces are compared and the influence of the bed slope is investigated. Force-profiles of two selected waves from the irregular wave train are further compared with the corresponding forceprofiles from stream function theory. The results suggest that the nonlinear irregular waves give rise to larger extreme wave forces than those predicted by linear theory and that a steeper bed slope increases the wave forces both for linear and nonlinear waves. It is further found that stream function theory in some cases underestimate the wave forces acting on the monopile.