Cooper's Island Nature Reserve

Cooper's Island spent the space age fenced off: NASA ran a tracking station here from Mercury through the Shuttle era, its antennas talking to capsules minutes after launch. Decommissioning returned the peninsula to Bermudians as a nature reserve, and it is now the island's finest quiet corner - a run of small beaches (Clearwater, Turtle Bay, Long Bay and hidden coves beyond) with calm, shallow water, casuarina shade and a fraction of the south shore's visitors, ending at a headland observation tower where longtails wheel and humpbacks pass in spring. The old installation's remnants add a stripe of Cold War archaeology to the walk.

The landscape

• Clearwater and Turtle Bay - the easy, calm family beaches at the entrance.
• The far coves - the walk-in beaches beyond the last car park.
• The observation tower - longtails, and whale spouts in season, from the headland.
• The tracking-station traces - the space-age remnants among the casuarinas.

When to go

May to October for swimming; March to April adds whales off the point. Weekdays are near-private; St David's families claim summer weekends. The eastern position catches sunrise, not sunset.

What to expect

It is deliberately low-key: limited facilities beyond the entrance beaches, and the best coves are a hot walk - carry water and shade. Currents stay gentle inside the bays but the outer points are for looking, not swimming. Getting there without a scooter or taxi takes bus-plus-walk patience.

Nearby

St David's Lighthouse, St George's across the channel and the airport causeway.

Key facts