The dreamy beaches of the Scottish Highlands are almost as renowned as the towering mountains which dominate the landscape here. No trip to Scotland is complete without a trip to the beach, and during our trip to Wester Ross in September we managed to visit a different beach nearly every day of our stay. Red Point beach was the last we visited – there are in fact two beaches at Red Point, and having already done a walk in the morning, we settled on a quick stop to visit the north beach rather than the longer hike taking in both north and south beaches.
There’s a small parking area in Red Point, just past the view point and where the public road comes to an end. While there’s parking for a fair few cars and we didn’t have any trouble finding a space, this is a popular stop on the NC500 and likely to be busier in peak season. If you can’t get parked, don’t just abandon your car at the side of the road – people live here and it’s never popular when tourists give no thought to parking considerately!
From the parking area it’s a short walk over to the beach, first across a grassy field and then over a huge sand dune to finally get to the beach – be prepared to sink up to your ankles in the sand! We took a very circuitous route to the beach as the field was packed full of cows and there was no way I was happy about walking through them (which, as Sam pointed out, we saw plenty of other people doing with no problems).
The beach here is fairly small, but very pretty. We almost had it to ourselves – there was another family with a dog at the opposite end of the beach, which we steered clear from as there was a cow browsing through the seaweed (clearly the grass is greener on the other side of the sand dune). It doesn’t take long to walk the length of the beach, but we strolled up and down enjoying the view before turning back to retrace our steps (note that it is a lot harder walking up a sand dune than down one).
If we’d had more time we might have done the Red Point beaches walk on Walkhighlands – which, according to the walk reports, offers the chance of spotting sea otters. Alas, like the sea eagles, the otters tend to elude us when we’re in Scotland, but there’s always next time.
Dog friendly rating – 4/5. Like lots of the beaches in this part of the world, Red Point beach is dog friendly all year round. I’ve just knocked off a point as there may be livestock on the beach – although there’s enough space that chances are you’ll be able to give them a very wide berth. To get to the beach, there are no stiles or serious dog obstacles – but you may want to take some water for your dog if you do the longer walk around the headland.
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