Ice cream kiosks, bronzed life guards, a nice seafood restaurant and plenty of parking – that’s exactly what my favourite British beaches are not all about. It’s the beach you can’t easily reach that appeals to me, the lonely seabird refuge where you must watch the tides, the secret crescent of sand with the steep steps down to it that the Health & Safety Police should have closed long ago. Here is a selection of the UK beaches I’d take to my Desert Island, along with my copy of Robinson Crusoe and my very loudest set of bagpipes. I won’t let on exactly where they are; go and find them, and you’ll be in for some salty delights.
Cornwall
- Below St Levan’s holy well lies the tiny, sandy crescent of Porthchapel
East Anglia
- The weird and wonderful shingle spit of Orford Ness holds seabirds, rare plants and some truly extraordinary Cold War history
Wales
- On Caldey Island’s cliff-backed beaches the grey seal cows give birth to their pups in autumn
East Yorkshire
- Storm waves pound lonely Ulrome Sands, where the houses slide down the cliffs and the sea is an all-powerful enemy
North-West
- Get out to Piel Island, by boat or on foot; you can drink with a King, have yourself knighted, and stroll a beautiful empty beach
North-East
- Once blighted and scarred by coal mine waste, Hawthorn Hive is a miracle of regeneration
Scotland
- Only otter tracks and gull prints mark the creamy sands of Kervaig, a sublime walker’s beach out near Cape Wrath
There are many more secret beaches, and other wild places of countryside and seashore, in Christopher Somerville’s recent books – ‘Coast: The Journey Continues’ (Ebury), ‘Britain and Ireland’s Best Wild Places’ (Allen Lane), and ‘The Living Coast’ (Last Refuge)