Sandwood Bay is web and surfers' paradise
One of Scotland’s most spectacular but remote beaches is proving a big hit among online web surfers – and actual surfers.
Sandwood Bay, on Sutherland’s west coast, which sits on the North Coast 500 route and is famous for its imposing sea stack, has topped “organic” searches for beaches on VisitScotland.com – both among Scottish residents and among potential visitors from the rest of the UK.
Organic search results are listings on search engine results pages that appear because of their relevance to the search terms, as opposed to their being advertisements
It is the only beach mentioned by name in the top-ten list of organic searches, averaging 1000 searches a month in the UK (not including Scotland). The terms “Scottish beaches” and “beaches in Scotland” are in second place with 260 searches.
The research forms part of VisitScotland’s new Insight paper, Coastal Tourism in Scotland, which is published today and which reveals the industry is worth £323 million to the economy.
The paper also shows that Scottish beaches are hugely popular among Londoners, with more than a quarter (27.6 per cent) of internet searches outside Scotland originating in the UK capital.
Among other findings of Coastal Tourism in Scotland are:
There has been a steady increase in domestic tourism at Scottish seaside locations since 2010. Between then and 2014, domestic trips increased by six per cent to an average of 1.5 million trips, while spend went up nine per cent to £323 million.
Part of the Sandwood Estate run by the John Muir Trust, Sandwood Bay is one of the most unspoilt beaches in mainland Britain. It has no road access but can be reached by a four-mile path from the hamlet of Blairmore.
Before the lighthouse at nearby Cape Wrath was built, Sandwood Bay saw a number of shipwrecks and, according to legend, doomed sailors haunt the site.
Facing west into the Atlantic, Sandwood Bay is also highly regarded among beach-break surfers.
Thurso-based surfer Mark Boyd, who has competed around the world as a member of the Scottish National Surfing Team, said: “There aren’t many west-facing beaches on the Scottish mainland so Sandwood Bay is a great spot for surfing in the summer months, where you don’t find many good waves elsewhere, because it is exposed to the swell of the Atlantic. The quality of the waves at Sandwood Bay is really high and compares to some of the best beach-breaks in France.”
Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland, said: “ It is no surprise that the beautiful and mysterious Sandwood Bay captures the imagination of so many people around Britain, but its majesty can only be truly appreciated at first hand.”
Don O’Driscoll, Sandwood and Quinag Property Manager for the John Muir Trust, said: “Sandwood Bay is breathtakingly beautiful, and most people who visit don’t get many chances to experience a wild place like this.
“There’s also the sense of achievement people get from the long walk in, a walk rewarded with a panorama of sea, cliff stacks and a pristine beach. Of course, there’s also the wildlife that makes this a designated site, the machair sand dunes, the larks singing, the gannets diving. Put simply, it’s a magical place the Trust is proud to take care of for the benefit of everyone.”
