Sandwood Bay

Sandwood is reached only on foot, about six and a half kilometres from the road end at Blairmore across peat moor and past lochans, which takes around ninety minutes each way and keeps the beach effectively empty. The bay runs about two kilometres of pink-tinged sand backed by high dunes and a freshwater loch behind them, with the sea stack Am Buachaille, the Herdsman, standing at the southern end. The area is owned by the John Muir Trust. It is the last beach before Cape Wrath, the northwest corner of the British mainland, and the coast between is uninhabited. Local tradition attaches a ghost story about a bearded sailor to the ruined cottage at the loch, and the bay has a long wrecking history from the days before the Cape Wrath light.

What you actually see

• The six-kilometre walk in - moorland track with no vehicle access at all.
• Am Buachaille - a sea stack standing off the southern end of the bay.
• The dune system - high dunes with a freshwater loch behind them.
• The emptiness - two kilometres of beach usually holding almost nobody.

When to go

May to September for the walk and the light; midges are bad in still conditions from June. The track is boggy year-round and worse after rain. Long summer daylight makes the round trip comfortable.

Honest expectations

Thirteen kilometres of walking on a wet, rough track is the price of entry and there is no shortcut. There are no facilities of any kind at the beach and nothing to shelter in. Swimming is dangerous with strong currents and no help within reach. Phone signal is absent.

Nearby

Kinlochbervie is the nearest village; Cape Wrath lies north along an uninhabited coast.