Surely one of the best things about Scotland is its beaches? Mainland Scotland has 6,160 miles (9,910 km) of coastline, and, when the islands are included, the country as a whole includes 11,602 miles (18,672 km). I know I am hardly objective, but to me a west coast Scottish beach is a truly wonderful thing, and one of my favourite places to be.
I love the transition between the sand and machair, transforming itself in spring into a carpet of wildflowers. I love the sound of skylarks and lapwings rising upwards on the breeze. I love the brisk air blowing west from the Atlantic, the crashing waves, the blue-green waters. I love the immediate sense of space of a wide stretch of white sand, the sensation that one is striding in a liminal place, across the very edges of the land. I love the rapidly shifting colours of these special landscapes, the way the skies change instantly from glorious to glowering.
If you were to ask me about my favourite beach, I would immediately say Machir bay, in Islay. This was the place where, six months after my stroke, I began to regain confidence in the outdoors: the beach where I knew I could, given time, feel comfortable, as a wonky disabled walker, in the landscapes that I loved. Next on my personal top beach list would be West Beach, Berneray (see Tom’s short film at the end of this post), and the beaches around the stunning Udal Peninsula in North Uist. And during our trip to Ardnamurchan, we discovered another certain contender for our list: the four beautiful sandy inlets that together make up Sanna Bay.
A walk out and around these inlets from the nearby township of Portuairk is a truly marvelous way to spend a day.
We slowly pottered around the beaches and the headland, our route marked by a series of cairns.
We looked back toward the lighthouse at Ardnamurchan point, standing at the most Westerly point of mainland Scotland.
It was a truly stunning day to enjoy spectacular views to the Small Isles and the Hebrides beyond. This artist with her easel definitely had the right idea.
Sanna is a spot to which I’ll definitely be returning!
KDD & Co 
Thanks to this article, I set off to have a week in the Ardnamurchan peninsula. I had happiest day since pandemic started cycling to this beautiful beach. On what turned out to be possibly the hottest day of the year. My photos look like we visited a red list country and I got sun burnt! I absolutely loved the beach. Thank you.
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so glad you enjoyed your trip!
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Thanks to this article, I set off for a weeks holiday on the Ardnamurchan peninsula and had one of happiest days since pandemic started cycling to this beautiful beach. Thank you!
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What a beautiful place to enjoy a day! I’d love to hear Bob’s point of view too😊
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Oh, such a wide world.
There is something special about a west coast beach, isn’t there, anywhere in the world. The beaches in my life are all on the west coast of North America (except for one joyous visit to the isle of Lewis!), and they’ve all been central to my life. Speaking of solstices, I try always to take a beach walk on the shortest day of the year . . .
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I am SO landlocked it makes me ill!! Not Covid, just miles/kilometers away…… When I was doing my Midder in Broxburn I would go out to Abb’s Head for the sea and the sky. You just took me back there………60 years ago! Ye Gods is that possible??? ah well, I can still see it, thank you.
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We had our honeymoon in Kyle of Locahlsh forty years ago. Having been living in Central London and Portsmouth respectively we found the silence deafening for the first couple of days! After that it was sheer bliss.
Beautiful scenery, gorgeous pictures to remember it by. Particularly as with so much of Britain, if you get it on a bad day it can kill you, or at least make you pretty ill!
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Your blog was the main inspiration of my traveling to the Outer Isles a couple of years ago. Can’t thank you enough!
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Simply stunning one of my favourite places would be Mellon Udrigle near Laide in the Highlands happy memories with my late husband.
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Sanna bay is my most favourite place. The colour of the sea and the sand is extraordinary. Just bliss. I would do live to be there for the longest day next week
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wow – midsummer’s eve – yes!
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Yet again, thank you Kate (and Tom) – your words (and pictures) transport me back to the stunning West Coast of Scotland. I haven’t visited the beaches mentioned, but have found many other, similar places when we were wandering Scotland. Wonderful places of peace, tranquility, beauty, contrast…… I’ll be spending the rest of today remembering……with the added bonus that, thanks to KDD, I can be transported back there whenever I need 💖
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Wonderful pictures that really chime with my times up in Scotland. My experience of Scottish beaches is mainly set around the far north-west, far north to far north-east coasts- so from Oldshoremore on the north–west coast all the way through to Sinclair Bay with its castle ruins on the north-east. The beaches vary from bright white sand to golden to pink, sometimes with shells, but they all have something in common- hardly anyone else there, even on a hot bank holiday (on the bank holiday just gone this year, we were paddling on Torrisdale Beach at Bettyhill, with only one other couple and their dog in residence), and so many things to see. Having left Cornwall a few days before to come up for our first holiday in 14 months, it felt like freedom.
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We spent a week on the Outer Hebrides 2 years ago and I was astounded by the stunning beaches and how beautiful it was. We were even lucky with weather
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Breathtaking! Had to cancel an island trip last month because of you know what. Thanks for transporting me there for 10 mins – the hills and beaches will still be there for us when it’s all over!
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Sanna was where we caravanned as kids. Lovely memories flooding back. Thanks Kate. Food for the soul!
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Such beautiful pictures – wish I was there on the beach. My favourite beaches are those around Lossiemouth, you can walk for miles and only see small numbers of people. As a child we played for hours on the beach, forest and fishing in the rockpools at Hopeman. Although the sea is bracing, you cannot beat Scotland for a beach.
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beautiful sky
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