![]() Unfortunately, this event isn't popular nor positive. But, looking at the wide sands ahead of me – ripe for hole digging and sandcastle making – I reckoned there’d be room for at least a few more.Īccommodation was provided by the Royal Marine hotel (B&B doubles from £109/night) water sports were provided by Sutherland Adventure Company (combined paddleboarding and snorkelling from £60pp).Utilize Google Hangouts Meet During The Coronavirus Outbreak: It's not often that the entire planet can empathize with one another regarding a single event. “But then, we’d have to share it with them.” He was right, of course – there’s no denying that having a beach this beautiful to yourself feels like an uncommon gift. “It’s a shame, because there really should be a lot more people here,” Billy had said last night. Children were paddling and stone skimming at the river mouth, and couples were picnicking in the dunes, but the main stretch of sand was completely empty. I’d planned to explore the village but arrived there just in time for the 10-minute train journey back to Brora and so, impatient to not miss the opportunity for a sunny afternoon on the beach, I headed back, tracing the route I’d just walked from the railway line above (a handful of trains run daily between Inverness and Wick).īack in the village, I armed myself appropriately for the beach with an ice-cream from Capaldis of Brora, which dates back to 1932. There was a lone bodyboarder among the waves, but other than that the beach was shared only with small groups of oystercatchers that scattered squeakily as I approached.Ĭapaldis ice cream. We’d snorkelled off the rockier southern stretch, but north of the harbour the sand curves around to reveal a tremendous, seemingly endless expanse of soft golden sand, the sky layered in dusky shades of blue and pink that reminded me of a Georgia O’Keeffe painting. There’s two miles of beautiful beach and no one on it.” Brora was the winner of Keep Scotland Beautiful Beach Award for 2022.Īfter a dinner of local seafood at the hotel – which was smart but unpretentious, full of mellow colours and seats to sink into – I walked the short distance to the main beach to see it for myself. “We have it all here – water sports, golf, fishing, hiking, biking, whisky, beaches,” said Billy McKechnie, the hotel’s general manager, “but Brora isn’t a busy resort. There are just a handful of places – largely self-catering – to stay in and around the village, which made my choice of the graceful Royal Marine hotel, next door to the golf course and opposite the harbour, feel like the standout option. ‘There’s two miles of beautiful beach and no one on it’. I’d been convinced I’d make a fool of myself on the water, but Rhionna was an excellent teacher and it wasn’t long before I was confidently paddling around the island in the middle of the loch, which had seemed impossibly far away when we first started. ![]() ![]() Still, it was no hardship to be out on the loch, under a cornflower-blue sky and surrounded by gentle hills that still bear the scars of the Highland clearances. “If conditions were right, we could have paddled downriver to the beach and snorkelled off our boards,” Rhionna said with a rueful smile, watching the wind ripple the clear, peaty waters of the loch, “but this is the Highlands, so you have to be prepared to adapt your plans.” Other than a lone bodyboarder the beach was mine to share with oystercatchers that scattered squeakily as I approached I began the day with her at Loch Brora, four miles inland, for my first attempt at paddleboarding. Snorkelling is just one of the watersports offered by Rhionna at Sutherland Adventure Company. ![]() The author’s first attempt at paddleboarding. ![]()
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