Britain’s best white-sand beaches

Aquamarine waters, bone-white sands, bleached driftwood… the stuff of holiday brochures and Instagram posts, and designed to lure us to foreign and exotic idylls. But, hang on; why go abroad?

Look closer to home. Britain’s coastline may not offer the bath-warm temperatures and languid palm trees of, say, the Caribbean, but it has some startling beaches along its varied coastline. And they’re not always where you might think.

Holkham beach on the breezy north Norfolk coast, for instance, was recently voted “the UK’s whitest beach” by holiday rental company, Dog Friendly Cottages (dogfriendlycottages.co.uk). The company used Google satellite images and digital colour analysis to detect the palest sands around our shores.

As an island nation, the seaside jaunt has long been our default holiday option – think Butlin’s and Pontins holiday camps and, before that, the Victorian railways that brought coastal resorts, such as Scarborough, Blackpool and Brighton, to the masses.

The attraction of the seaside is a mix of comforting sameness with a dash of wildness – the power of the sea – and permission to just “let go”. Who cares who’s watching?

Get the sand between-the-toes, jump over the waves, build that sandcastle, or just gaze at the far horizon and wonder what lies beyond. And if it’s a dreamy pale-sand beach, so much the better. Whether you want to walk, laze or swim, here’s our pick of the UK’s palest.

Luskentyre, Isle of Harris, Outer Hebrides

At the end of a three-mile-long single-track road, this beach, on the west coast of Harris in the Outer Hebrides, dazzles like an illusion.

Even under cloudy skies, its waters are temptingly clear – though always resolutely chilly – while the powdery sand stretches around the coastal inlet.

With its dunes and views of the Harris hills, there’s a tangible castaway feel – indeed, the island of Taransay, a couple of miles offshore, was the setting for the BBC’s Castaway programme in 2000.

If the tide is out, it’s possible to walk to the south side of the inlet to the equally fine Seilebost beach thus making the entire Sound of Taransay a vast stretch of dusty white sand.

Overlooking an equally beguiling beach to the south of Luskentyre, Scarista House, a former Georgian manse, offers elegantly traditional rooms and gourmet food (01859 550238; scaristahouse.com; doubles from £291 B&B).

Porthcurno, Cornwall

Cornwall has several contenders for our top 10 but Porthcurno, on the south-western tip and around the corner from Land’s End, makes the grade as much for its rugged setting as its pearly sands.

Down steep steps and cupped by high granite cliffs that provide a natural windbreak, it has a raw beauty.

At low tide, the sands curve round the eastern headland to Pedn Vounder giving two beaches for the price of one. As Porthcurno’s beach shelves quickly, it’s a good spot for swimming.

But when the sea delivers south-westerly swells, the currents quickly become dangerous, and the drama – and surfers – are best watched from the sand.

Four miles away, above the granite cliffs of the tip of south-west England, the Land’s End Hotel offers fresh contemporary rooms (01736 871844; landsendhotel.co.uk; from £117 B&B).

Camusdarach, near Mallaig, west Scotland

The longest and widest of the handful of beaches between Mallaig and Arisaig on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands, Camusdarach beats most of them due to its views.

To the north are the distinctive jagged shapes of the Cuillin Hills on the Isle of Skye while, opposite, are the Small Isles of Rum and Eigg with their mountains and sea cliffs.

All good material for sunset photographs. The beach’s soft pale sands are not sheltered; it’s more a place for walking and rock-pooling or, if you’ve a mind, for swimming in its astonishingly clear waters. For film-location-baggers, it also featured in the cult film, Local Hero.

The four sleek Cairn Lodges, sleeping two to six, and with log stoves, wood-fired hot tubs, underfloor heating and panoramic sea-views, are a 10-minute walk from the beach (07595 941267; cairnlodges.com; from £715, three-nights, two-person lodge).

Achmelvich, near Lochinver, west Scotland

It may be way up in north-west Scotland, in the remoter parts of Sutherland and down a narrow track two miles west of Lochinver, but this tropical-white beach is busy – partly because the North Coast 500 (a 516-mile road trip around Scotland’s north coast) passes close by. What was once only known to a discerning few, now is Instagram-famous.

Still, that doesn’t detract from the simple natural beauty of this gently curving beach and – to the first-time visitor – astonishingly soft, powder sand. Walk over the grassy headland at the western end of the beach to a smaller, equally lovely and more secluded cove.

This friendly B&B, overlooking a peaceful glen, is a mile-and-a-half from the beach (and from Lochinver in the other direction), and offers staggering breakfasts of home produce (01571 844014; ardmorehousebnb.co.uk; from £140 B&B). 

Appletree Bay, Tresco, Isles of Scilly

Technically, this is another entry for Cornwall but, as it’s 28 miles offshore in the verdant Isles of Scilly it may as well be in a different county.

The half-mile-long stretch of near-white sand of Appletree Bay (also known as Apple Tree Bay) on the south-western coast of Tresco gazes over the calm, blue waters of Tresco Flats to neighbouring Bryher and a couple of low islets with the wide Atlantic beyond.

Backed by dunes, and with a glimpse of Tresco Abbey’s sub-tropical gardens to the north, it could be, if not in the Caribbean, then certainly closer to the Equator. And it rarely gets crowded.

The New Inn has light, breezily coloured rooms with tongue-and-groove panelling, a fuss-free style, and sea or countryside views (01720 422849; tresco.co.uk); doubles from £210). 

Barafundle Bay, Pembrokeshire

More honey-blonde than bleach-blonde, nevertheless this beach on the south coast of Pembrokeshire, about five miles south of Pembroke, is a beauty. It requires a half-mile walk (along part of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path) from the National Trust-owned Stackpole Quay car park over a limestone headland and then through a stone archway down steps to the beach.

The 18th-century archway and castellated wall is a remnant of when the land, part of the Stackpole Estate and now owned by the National Trust, belonged to the Campbells of Cawdor family.

The east-facing beach, which curves gently between two impressive limestone headlands, is sheltered and offers safe swimming but no facilities; bring, and take away, all you need.

Renowned for its food, the Stackpole Inn, converted from a row of cottages, has four bright and breezy bedrooms with bare-board floors and a white-and-blue colour scheme (01646 672324; stackpoleinn.co.uk; from £140 B&B).

Bamburgh, Northumberland

This broad windswept beach, in the lee of the vast and brooding Bamburgh Castle, changes colour with the time of day, the wind and the vagaries of the sun. Sometimes it glows like honey, other times it shines bright and light, and at others it shimmers a sherbet pink.

Whatever the colour, the sand is soft and powdery, backed by dunes and stretches three miles south to the jolly seaside fun of Seahouses.

It’s a beach for activities, rather than sunning, with surfing, stand-up paddle boarding and sometimes horse-riding.

But it’s the looming presence of the Norman castle, like a silent watchful parent, that draws people back, many who holidayed here as children now bringing their grandchildren.

The Lord Crewe offers smart, contemporary rooms with a seaside-y theme in a Georgian building a five-minute walk from both beach and castle (01668 214243; lord-crewe.co.uk; doubles from £240 B&B). 

Holkham Beach, Norfolk

The north Norfolk coast has a string of beaches that stretches from Hunstanton in the west around to Cromer in the east. Two-mile long Holkham beach, part of the Holkham Estate which includes the Palladian Holkham Hall and a National Nature Reserve, sits in the middle, a broad flat expanse of pale sand backed by low dunes and pine woods.

In summer, wild flowers in the dunes attract butterflies while it’s also an important breeding ground for terns, oyster catchers and ringed plovers.

It’s an elemental sort of beach – the wind, the sea, the sky – which provided the perfect backdrop for the final scene of 1998’s Shakespeare in Love, the film which depicted the doomed love affair between aristocratic Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow) and William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes).

The Victoria on the Holkham Estate and minutes from the beach offers light-filled country house-style rooms (01328 711008; holkham.co.uk; doubles from £190 B&B). 

West Wittering, Sussex

Okay, so it’s shading into gold, but the long stretch of West Wittering sands that curves round into Chichester Harbour is beach-perfect, with soft, flat sands and a photogenic row of colourful beach chalets.

The water is clear and shallow – perfect for families – and, to stretch your legs, there’s a lovely walk to the dunes of East Head with views across the harbour to Hayling Island, inland to Chichester and the South Downs, and out to sea to the Isle of Wight.

True, it’s a busy beach, but well-organised with lifeguards, loos, café, watersports hire and a large car park.

This former farmhouse and outbuildings, on the eastern side of Chichester Harbour five miles from West Wittering beach, offers light, contemporary-style rooms (01243 784995; crouchersorchards.co.uk; doubles from £140 B&B).

Kynance Cove, Cornwall

Turquoise waters and shell-white sands, sea-stacks and hidden caves, Kynance Cove could be straight out of a children’s adventure story. On the western side of Lizard Point, this beach has attracted visitors since Victorian times.

The caves and sea-stacks, with quaint names such as the “Ladies Bathing Pool” and “The Bishop”, can be explored at low tide, but care is needed when high tide approaches.

When it gets busy – which it will – take the two-mile cliff path to Lizard Point, England’s most southerly point, and a series of spectacular rock formations.

Sitting in whitewashed splendour above Mullion Cove, this Victorian hotel has an elegantly traditional style, spa and gardens and is a 10-minute drive (or two-hour coastal walk) from Lizard Point (01326 240328; mullion-cove.co.uk; from £135 B&B).