Sandwood Bay from Blairmore

Sandwood Bay is a mile of sand backed by dunes and a freshwater loch, framed by cliffs and the sea stack of Am Buachaille, 8km south of Cape Wrath at the top corner of the mainland, and it has no road. The John Muir Trust has owned the Sandwood estate since 1993 and manages it, in the Trust’s own description, to keep wild land and a working crofting community together; every acre the walk crosses is crofted. Wikipedia and Walkhighlands both repeat the claim that it is the most beautiful beach in Britain, which is as far as this site will go. The ruined cottage above the loch has a sailor’s ghost said to knock at its windows on stormy nights, the kind of thing a beach this far from a road collects.

The walk in starts at the Blairmore car park north of Kinlochbervie, at NC 197603, which has toilets; there is no longer any vehicle access along the track. A wide track heads through a gate and undulates over peat moorland past Loch Aisir, crosses the outflow of Loch na Gainimh and reaches Loch a’ Mhuilinn, where stepping stones cross another outflow, before the track gives way to path and the bay opens below. Walkhighlands calls the terrain level, with a couple of streams that are usually easy to cross unless the ground is very wet, and gives the route a bog factor of 4.5 out of 5, which is a fair warning about the surface between the stones. Ordnance Survey Explorer 446 covers it, and the nearest bus stop is Kinlochbervie.

At 13km there and back with only 150m of ascent, Walkhighlands gives four to five hours, and says plainly that the route is longer and harder than most people expect for a beach. It suits a walker staying around Kinlochbervie, Rhiconich or Scourie who wants the one far north-west outing nobody who has done it forgets, and a still day, when the beach absorbs however many people the car park holds. It does not suit dogs off the lead, because the crofted land carries livestock and ground-nesting birds and the Trust asks for strict control, or anyone expecting a stroll, since 13km of peat track is a full day for children. For a summit in half a day instead of a beach in a whole one, Stac Pollaidh is further down the coast towards Ullapool.