Pssst... don’t tell anyone, but this is Scotland’s best kept secret beach...

BOSTA Beach might trip off the tongue easily but the trip getting there is one that’s often too difficult for tourists.

Now, the stunning stretch of coastline has been named Scotland’s ‘best kept secret spot’ to visit.

Described by tourists as ‘the most beautiful beach imaginable in the Northern Hemisphere’, Bosta – some 300 miles from Glasgow and Edinburgh by road and ferry – is one of ten ‘hidden’ Scottish gems identified by new research.

Marketing agency Verve Search analysed 100,000 tourist attractions around the world via TripAdvisor.

‘Secret spots’ were identified as having a low number of TripAdvisor reviews but a high proportion of five-star ratings.

Bosta, on the Outer Hebrides island of Great Bernera, had received only 117 reviews from visitors. However, 105 of the reviews – or 90 per cent – gave the beach five stars, with 11 visitors giving four and only one rating it ‘terrible’.

Happy tourists described the trip to the stunning beach as ‘well worth the drive’, with the only negative review conceding ‘the beach is okay’ but ‘small by Hebridean standards’.

Bosta Beach is one of 12 UK sites with a Time and Tide Bell, which rings when the sea is at high tide and is intended to draw attention to climate change.

Other secret spots highlighted in Scotland include Mull Head Nature Reserve on mainland Orkney, which is described as a ‘photographer’s paradise’. Bosta Beach also beat Huisinis Beach, which lies 60 miles away on the Isle of Harris.

Glenmore Forest’s An Lochan Uaine – a small green loch in Aviemore – and the Black Cuillin ridge on the Isle of Skye, are the other two in the top five.

The top ten includes Dr Neil’s Garden in Duddingston Village, Edinburgh, while 68 of 69 hikers endorsed Trotternish Ridge as a gem on the Isle of Skye.

The Pentland Hills, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Glenmore Forest Park and Cuween Hill Chambered Cairn on Orkney round off the top ten.

Bosta Beach comes second only to Llyn y Fan Fach, a lake at the Black Mountain in Carmarthenshire, South Wales, in the UK-wide rankings.