Qualla: Sandwood Bay

Sandwood Bay: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter Bond, CC BY-SA 2.0. There is no road to Sandwood Bay. You park at the gravel lot in Blairmore, shoulder a pack, and walk four miles across peat bog and moor before the dunes finally open and the beach rolls out in front of you - one mile of pale pink sand, a sea stack called Am Buachaille standing watch at the south end, and behind it all the freshwater Sandwood Loch, separated from the Atlantic by nothing but a wall of sand. Most ratings call it the cleanest unspoilt beach in mainland Britain. Sergeant Michael Kilburn might have agreed; he crash-landed a Spitfire here in 1941, walked away from the wreck, and left his Rolls-Royce Merlin engine in the sand. Sometimes it still surfaces.

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Image: Peter Bond | CC BY-SA 2.0

Sandwood Bay: The Viking Anchorage

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sarah Charlesworth, CC BY-SA 2.0. The name almost certainly comes from Old Norse - Sandvatn, "sand water" - a reminder that these waters were a Viking highway long before they became Scottish. The bay was a known stopover for longships running the coast between the Orkneys and the Hebrides, and Pictish remains in...

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Image: Sarah Charlesworth | CC BY-SA 2.0

Sandwood Bay: The Mermaid of January 5th

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dr E H Mackay, CC BY-SA 2.0. On January 5th, 1900, a farmer named Alexander Gunn was on the beach searching for a lost sheep when his collie suddenly cringed and howled. On a ledge above the tide line a figure was reclining against the rock face. At first Gunn thought it was a seal. Then he saw the hair - re...

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Image: Dr E H Mackay | CC BY-SA 2.0

Sandwood Bay: Sandy of Strathchailleach

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gordon Brown, CC BY-SA 2.0. About a mile east of the beach, the farmstead of Strathchailleach sits alone in the heather - a mid-19th-century building with no road, no electricity, no neighbours. James MacRory-Smith, known to everyone as Sandy, moved in during 1962 and stayed until 1994, living as a hermit. ...

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Image: Gordon Brown | CC BY-SA 2.0