Seas the day – which is your favourite beach?
Most people have a favourite Scottish beach, but how many others do you know about? Now an Oban author has written a guide to 150 beaches around Scotland’s coast, to help you explore more of them.
The Beaches of Scotland by Stacey McGowan Holloway offers something for everyone, from gentle sands which feel almost tropical to rugged coves which can only be accessed by kayak.
From surfing to snorkelling, kayaking, camping and cold-water swimming, this book travels from Kilmory Beach, with its views over the Paps of Jura, along single track roads to Singing Sands on the Ardnamurchan peninsula.
Dr Stacey McGowan Holloway, a member of Oban Mountain Rescue Team and founder of the Oban Seals swimming group, has a passion for Scotland’s wild places.
She worked in community sport development, a role that covered the entire of Argyll and Bute, before returning to science and the NHS as a radiotherapy physicist and research fellow at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre.
She lives in Oban with her husband Max, an ocean physicist at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, and their four hens.
A long-distance runner and year-round swimmer, she has written for outdoor magazines including Outdoor Swimmer, Women’s Running, and Like the Wind.
Thanks to her book, you can experience Scotland at its wildest and most stunning at Achnahaird Bay, bask in the otherworldly sense that these remote beaches can inspire at Balnakeil, gaze in awe at the scenery you cannot quite believe is real on Berneray’s West Beach, or blow the cobwebs away as you wander along the sand of Dornoch in the far north-east.
Whether you are after a thrilling day getting salt in your hair or a peaceful escape from responsibilities and worries, Scotland’s coast has it all.
You can meet Stacey at a book signing in Oban Waterstones on Saturday, May 7, from 11.30am-1.30pm, following a swim at Ganavan Sands at 10am.