Award-winning beaches shore make fantastic spots to enjoy stunning scenery
With award-winning sandy shores, towering sea stacks and wildlife galore, northern Scotland has some of the greatest beaches in the UK, if not the world. Here are five of the best.
Sandwood Bay
This epic sweep of palest pink Sutherland sand stretches for a mile and a half along the north-west tip of Scotland, a few miles from Cape Wrath, with the Am Buachaille sea stack standing sentry against the North Atlantic swell.
It’s a four-mile hike from the car park at Blairmore. The wider Sandwood Estate, managed by the John Muir Trust, is home to eight islands, a saltwater lagoon and the freshwater Sandwood Loch.
Before Cape Wrath lighthouse was built, the area was notorious for shipwrecks, which might explain the ghost stories and mermaid sightings.
Clachtoll Beach
The Beach in Assynt offers white sand, clear waters and the impressive Split Rock sea stack and Clachtoll Broch, a 2,000-year-old drystone tower. There’s a campsite just a few yards from the beach.
The campsite’s website lists regular sightings of porpoises, dolphins, minke whales, otters, golden eagles and sea eagles, as well as skuas, curlews, waxwings, buzzards, house martins, ringed plovers, black-throated divers, oystercatchers, yellowhammers, black-tailed godwits, wrens, skylarks, wheatears and short-eared owls. Oh, and even the occasional orca!
Melvich Beach
This is a little off the beaten track, between Thurso and Bettyhill. This gorgeous stretch of golden sands is prime surfing territory and popular with wildlife-watchers.
At Strathy Bay, pictured above, surfers share the waves with all kinds of marine life, including red and black-throated divers. This beach is a Special Area of Conservation and a Site of Special Scientific Interest, so tread lightly.
Portmahomack Beach
The beach at Portmahomack has a lovely – and unique – setting. It’s on the sheltered, Dornoch Firth-facing side of the Tarbat peninsula in Ross-shire, making it the only village on the east coast that looks due west.
This lends itself to stunning sunsets, and there’s plenty to keep visitors occupied until the sun goes down. The beach is broad and sandy, with interesting rockpools to investigate at low tide, and lots of great walks nearby.
Rosemarkie Beach
If you want somewhere easily accessible, you can’t go wrong with Rosemarkie Beach.
Here the eastern edge of the Black Isle meets the Moray Firth, and golden sands stretch out as far as the eye can see. The beach is fringed with woodland and grassy areas. The Rosemarkie Beach Café is the perfect spot for a rest and it’s worth a walk to Chanonry Point – one of the best dolphin-watching locations in the country.
Dornoch, Golspie & Brora
Skip across the Dornoch Firth for a string of top-class beaches. Dornoch has long been a popular resort and its sands are regularly named among the cleanest in the country. A little further north, Golspie and Brora are also award-winners.