Luskentyre – The Great Sands of Harris

The walk

Park in the car park at the very end of the Luskentyre road, a single-track road that leaves the A859 and runs along the north side of the bay. It's run by the West Harris Trust, the community landowner, and there's no charge for a car. There are public toilets beside it. Look up the tide times before you leave. The sands are covered at high water and the tide comes in fast across the flats, so walk on a falling tide and don't stray far out. No landowner publishes a length for this walk.

Andrew's Walks, one walker's own record of it, puts the round at 2.2 miles with about 100 feet of climbing, and it takes an hour to an hour and a half. A path through the dunes comes out on Tràigh Rosamol, the northern end of the Luskentyre sands. Taransay lies across the sound, with the hills of North Harris to the north. The beach curves round into the great bay of Tràigh Losgaintir, where low water uncovers a huge spread of sand bars and channels reaching towards Seilebost on the far side. Don't try to cross to it. The way back is up through the dunes by the cemetery and along the quiet township road.

The dunes and the machair, the grassland behind them, are grazed, so keep dogs on a lead. There's no shelter anywhere on the sands, so dress for the wind. In winter, look on the water for great northern divers. There's no café at Luskentyre, so bring a flask. Talla na Mara at Nisabost, further along the A859, has a community café, but it posts its winter hours on its social media, so look before counting on it. From November to January, set off by 1.30pm.