Balmedie Beach and Country Park
Miles of sand and big dunes north of Aberdeen, with boardwalks down to the sea.
The coast north of Aberdeen is one long beach, fourteen miles of sand and dunes running up to the mouth of the Ythan at Newburgh, and Balmedie Country Park is the easiest place to get onto it.
Behind the beach the dunes rise in ridges and hollows, great and small, covered in marram grass and a range of other plants that thrive in the sand. Two burns cross the park on their way to the sea, drawing green ribbons of wetland through the dunes. Some 1,700 metres of boardwalk carry the paths through to the beach, where the sand is wide and firm and goes on for as far as anyone wants to walk.
On the landward side of the dunes is a stretch of grassland with the car parks and picnic benches, and barbecue stands can be booked through the council. It is a big, open, windy place, worth a walk at any time of year and especially on a summer evening.
The park is open at any time.
The car parks and picnic benches are behind the dunes, and barbecue stands can be booked through the council.
- Where
- Balmedie, north of Aberdeen.
- Boardwalk
- About 1,700 metres through the dunes.
Balmedie.
Scotland, in print.
Every photograph commissioned, every word written by somebody who went. Printed twice a year, made in Scotland.
For further reading, before you go.