Though it yields interesting examples of lead smelter clinker even its best friend would be pushed to describe Strontian’s own beach as a golden strand. And as with most of the long sea lochs the rest of  Sunnart is not well served but the Atlantic coast a few miles west  has beaches that will rank with any.

I accept it is a drive but worth it. Approached through the crater of an ancient volcano, facing West onto the open ocean the  beach and seascape dwarf the visitor. On a fine day the sand goes from silver to gold, the sea from indigo to every hue of blue and the rocks and cliffs that seem to soak up the light are almost black even in sunshine. It is desolate. The few houses appear here only on sufferance like something washed up by the winter tides. If you visit nothing else you must see Sanna

Looking North toward Rhum and Eig

West out into the Atlantic.

Looking SW. Even in sunlight it can be strangely ominous.

A solitary orchid  in a damp patch between the dunes.

This is the most southerly of the range of beaches that form the Singing Sands. Facing NE to the open Atlantic. To the right of the photograph low dunes march into a mossy forest of Scots Pines. At the west end of the beach you can see the remains of a “causied” sea ford over the burn leading to a lost village.

The west end of the second beach . Behind me a stream emerges from a sandy pine wood.

The third beach shot into the sun. Two of the sets of footprints are of a girl I met, one is mine and the other a feral sheep with a rather unsheeplike aggressive attitude. That was the sum of society on the middle beaches.

North of New Town of Ardtoe the sea surprises you by sneaking in though low rocky hills not from the flat beaches to the south..  It is a weird inlet worth walking down at low time just for the rather edgy  atmosphere. The kind of place where, if you heard the sound of duelling banjos, you would take it seriously.

The most northerly beach. The distant vegetation is forest trees not bushes. To the left dunes stretch well inland backed by more forest. I am told that part of the D-Day landings were practiced here. I don’t know which of the Normandy beaches it was meant to model. If you are lucky you may still find unexploded ordinance.

A small but dramatic beach of sand and large rocks. Sadly behind the photographer is the clutter of sheds of the marine research station a rather gloomy  dammed inlet and a caravan park. Don’t look round and you will be fine.

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