Sandwood Bay

Sandwood Bay is consistently cited as one of the most beautiful beaches in Britain, and one of the hardest to get to. A mile of pink-tinged sand backed by high dunes, with the great sea stack of Am Buachaille standing offshore at its southern end and the empty cliffs of Cape Wrath stretching away to the north. There is no road access. To reach the beach visitors walk in from the small car park at Blairmore (about three miles north of Kinlochbervie), following a clear track for around 7 km across moorland and lochans.

The land has been owned and managed by the John Muir Trust since 1993, as part of their Sandwood Estate. The Trust has stripped most of the conifer plantation that previously masked the approach and is in the long process of restoring the moorland and dune systems to a more natural state. The beach itself is wild, no facilities of any kind, no rangers, and only a small ruin of a former crofters’ bothy at the southern end.

For walkers it is the southern terminus of the Cape Wrath Trail, the rough long-distance walk from Fort William, and the natural alternative objective when the MOD firing range north of Durness is closed and the lighthouse is unreachable. The walk in is straightforward in good weather, but the moorland can be wet and the wind from the Atlantic exposed; allow at least four hours for the round trip plus time on the beach.