It’s a Beach Day! Scotlands most Beautiful Beaches

January 13, 2024

A crescent beach surrounded by grasses. The sky is cloudy

I love a beach, and the ones around Kinlochbervie in north-west Scotland are beyond beautiful. They are wild, sandy and rugged. If it wasn’t for the weather, I would have thought I was somewhere significantly more tropical. Today, we have a slightly tongue-in-cheek round up of the four (or sort of five) beaches we visited in the area, working round the coast to the west/north-west from Kinlochbervie. In all honesty, they’re all lovely, so you should visit them all and choose your own favourite. 

I think this is my last post about my trip to Scotland. If you’d like to catch up, you can find my other posts about our West Coast adventures on the NC500 and our Inverness explorations here.

A beach surrounded by grass. The sky is moody overhead.
Oldshoremore Beach
A cemetary with a steep hill in the background
Oldshoremore Cemetary

Oldshoremore Beach

Good for:

  • Evidence of a visiting bull!
  • The possibility of watching some sheep-herding on the nearby cliffs
  • A long sandy stretch which is quite easily accessible (compared to others)
  • A proper car park and toilets
  • A stunningly remote cemetary with Commonwealth War Graves

Oldshoremore Beach has made it onto the official NC500 website.

A beach taken from above. The water is turquoise.
Polin Beach
A passing place sign to indicate a narrow road. In the distance is a white house and a beach
Passing Place near Polin Beach
A beach with sand. Three people are in the water paddleboarding and a cliff is visible in the distance on the right.
Brave Bodyboarders

Polin Beach

Good for: 

  • A smaller cove but still a good sized beach
  • Turquoise waters
  • A local family were bodyboarding during our October visit
  • Some cute signs on the walk down
  • A good clamber back to the road or over the headland to Droman Pier
A brown sheep stands on a grassy hill, half hidden by a wooden turquoise boat hull.
A sailor sheep at Droman Pier
A road between two grass banks. It sneaks around a corner down a hill and in the distance you can see the sea.
The road to Droman Pier
A brown sheep stands on grass. In the background is a steep hill.
Sheep of Droman Pier

Droman Pier

Good for: 

  • People who don’t like beaches (it isn’t really one)
  • Sheep
  • A fun walk to Polin Beach
A beach surrounded by steep hills. The tide is in.
Shegra Beach
A cairn in front of a sunset
Shegra Cairn at Sunset

Shegra Beach

Good for: 

  • Sunsets
  • Interesting decorated rocks
  • Massive headlands to climb and explore

You might be interested in this campsite at Shegra.

A beach in the distance beyond dunes.
Sandwood Bay

Sandwood Bay

Good for: 

  • 9 mile round-trip walks
  • Parking, toilets and drinking water (at Blairmore Car Park, 4.5 miles from Sandwood Bay – there are no facilities beyond this)
  • Using stepping stones to cross lochs
  • Breathtaking scenery
  • Feeling like you’re alone at the end of the world
  • Sand dunes
  • Eagles

You can read more about Sandwood Bay on the John Muir Trust website.

So there you have it, a round up of some of the loveliest beaches I’ve ever seen.

More about Laura

Related Posts