Melvich – Golden Sand Where the Halladale Meets the Sea

The walk

Melvich Beach has a small car park of its own, at the end of a signed gravel track that leaves the A836 in the village and runs gently down to it over two cattle grids. Scotland Off the Beaten Track puts the sand five minutes north of the car park, by a path through the marram dunes. A second, slightly longer path goes east to the bank of the Halladale River and comes down to the beach beside the water, and the two together make a loop: out through the dunes, east along the sand to the river mouth and back up the river bank. No source gives the loop a length or a time; on our map it comes to roughly three-quarters of a mile, a little up and down and mostly on sand.

The beach is a wide curve of golden sand, closed by the pier at Portskerra to the west and the cliffs below Rubha an Tuir to the east. The river runs out at its east end, past Bighouse Lodge on the far bank, a private sporting lodge. The footbridge over the river by the lodge is not a public way, so the walk never crosses the river or its channel on the sand: look across, and come back by the bank. When the tide is in, keep to the dune and river-bank paths, and never wade.

Salmon sometimes jump at the river mouth, and seals put their heads up beyond the surf. It's a surfers' beach, and Venture North warns of rip currents in the bay, so keep out of the surf and well clear of the river mouth. Arctic terns nest in and around the dunes in spring and summer: keep to the paths then, and keep dogs close. The public toilets, the shop and the Halladale Inn are up in the village; the Highland Council lists the toilets with no disabled access and no baby changing.