Sandwood Bay – a Walk Over the Moor to the Sea Stack
8 miles · 6 hours
Sandwood Bay is one of the great beaches of the far north-west, and no road comes near it: its dunes, its loch and its sea stack are reached on foot alone.
Where it starts
Start at the John Muir Trust's car park at Blairmore, with toilets; if it's full, its car parks at Polin, Dromin or Sheigra, never the verges.
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Before you go
On the path
Five or six hours: four miles each way on foot, and time on the beach. A four-mile path across exposed moorland, uneven and often wet. Eight miles there and back on rough, wet ground: for older children who walk well.
Good to know
All year, in daylight and settled weather. Blairmore car park, on the road north of Kinlochbervie past Oldshoremore, where the path starts. A working crofting estate: dogs on leads, and respect gates and fences. Toilets at the Blairmore car park only. From November to February the sun sets between about 3.30pm and 4.40pm: leave the car park by 10am.
The walk
The walk to Sandwood Bay starts at Blairmore and goes out and back on the same path: four miles each way, and about five or six hours in all with time on the sand. The John Muir Trust keeps the path, a well-made one over peat bog, but the moor is exposed, and parts of it are rough underfoot and often wet. The path's own page, from the Trust, links its map of the estate.
Wear boots, and carry waterproofs, a warm layer and water. The weather on this coast can change fast: if it closes in on the moor, turn back.
From Blairmore the path heads across open moor past a string of lochans, Loch na Gainimh and then Loch a' Mhuilinn. The Trust ranks the peat here with the best ground for wildlife in the north-west.
Near the end the path passes the ruin of Sandwood House, a farmhouse of the later 1800s, built on a level terrace dug out of the hillside above the bay. It has lost its roof, but most of its walls still stand taller than a person. Look for the drystone sheep pens and shepherd's cottage to its north-west, and the ridges of old rig and furrow higher up. Sandwood still has its ghost stories.
Then the path drops through the dunes to the bay, a long sweep of sand between cliffs, with the fresh water of Sandwood Loch behind it. The sand was washed out of the glaciers as they melted, and the dunes and machair are protected as a Special Area of Conservation. A shell midden in the dunes goes back to the Middle Stone Age, and Bronze Age pottery has turned up on the loch shore.
Off the headland at the south end stands Am Buachaille, the herdsman, a sea stack that draws rock climbers. In the nesting season shags, razorbills, guillemots and fulmars come to the sea cliffs round the bay, and a rare bee, the great yellow bumblebee, lives at Sandwood.
There is nowhere to buy food on the way, so take a picnic for the dunes.
If it rains
In heavy rain or a gale, keep Sandwood for a calmer day, as the moor and the beach have no shelter. Oldshoremore's beach, on the road in, makes a short walk instead.
On the way
- Oldshoremore Beach
The road to Blairmore passes Oldshoremore's beach, and the John Muir Trust's map marks a car park with toilets above it. The machair between Oldshoremore and Sheigra is among the finest on the Scottish mainland, the Trust says, rich in wild flowers with orchids among them. It adds only a few minutes, on the way out or the way home.
After the walk
Something to do with the rest of the day, nearest the end of the walk first.
With the rest of the day
4 min by roadThings to doPolin BeachA tiny sandy cove below the crofting settlement of Polin, just beyond Oldshoremore, turquoise water held between rocky headlands.
5 min by roadThings to doOldshoremore BeachA wide sandy bay by the scatter of crofts beyond Kinlochbervie, reached by steps through the dunes, with red sandstone headlands and golden evening light.
11 min by roadThings to doInshegraA tiny crofting township on the south shore of Loch Inchard, on the road to Kinlochbervie, among bare hills and lochans in the far north-west.Places to stay near the walk
Our places to stay nearest the start, by road.
None of ours is close to the start. The nearest is Ceannabeinne Cottage in Durness, 25 miles from the start. Sleeps 4. An advert.
Then Hill Cottage in Port na Con, 29 miles from the start. Sleeps 2. An advert.
More walks near here
Within a short drive of the start.
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For further reading, before you go.
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