For
much of my childhood the highlight of the summer was our annual Wakes Week
holiday at Fleetwood or Morecambe or another of the even then slightly faded but
much loved seaside resorts which line the Lancashire coast. If we couldn’t
manage a whole week, there would be at least a day-trip or two, always by
train. My memories are of buckets and spades, sandcastles, donkey-rides on
the beach and first paddling, then swimming, in the always chilly waters of the
Irish Sea.
When
we moved to Mid-Wales in the early 1970s the resorts changed, but the pattern
of occasional day trips to the seaside, now by car, continued while our
children were small, though with wonderful countryside immediately around us,
the pull of the coast rapidly diminished. Instead it was their grandparents who
took our two for a week at the seaside from time to time.
Now
in retirement we are lucky enough to spend extended periods of time in close
proximity to a very different kind of coast, empty of resorts, and with not a
promenade or wrought-iron pier in sight. Instead, within a very few miles of
where we stay, there are cliffs and sandy beaches, little coves and tiny harbours,
sandbanks where seals can sometimes be spotted sunning themselves, and the kind
of tempting, uninhabited islands that children’s stories were written about in
my youth. And what is even more
wonderful is that, far more often than not, when you go there you will have
these magical spots entirely to yourself.
So
come with me on a short tour of our favourite corners in this small area of the
eternally fascinating and unspoilt coast of the North-West Highlands.
We begin on the Kyle of Tongue, that wide, shallow estuary
to which Ben Loyal and Ben Hope form such a magnificent backdrop.
There we find the sandbanks, where, if you're lucky,
you may see seals sunning themselves and occasionally
rolling over into the water to catch themselves a quick snack.
Continuing north along the Melness peninsula, we come to Talmine Bay.
Here, as well as its pale sand and pebble beach, is the small stone jetty
which turns this corner into a safe harbour for small boats
and a final resting place for a long-abandoned one.
Towards the tip of the peninsula lies one of our favourite places,
the tiny former fishing hamlet of Port Vasgo in its little bay,
its boats long gone and half its cottages now in ruins.
No gentle sandy beach here, just knife-edged rocks,
through which those long-ago fishermen laboriously cut a channel
to allow their boats to be winched up out of the water to safety.
From Port Vasgo you can walk west across sheep-nibbled turf
to a tiny, nameless beach, tucked between cliff and rocks.
Even Perpetua reverts to childhood dreams here.
Another quarter turn to the left and from the rocks you can see Midfield beach,
though you can only access it by clambering precariously across the rocks,
or more sensibly via another path from inland.
It's back to the car to drive round to the inner edge of the bay
and lovely Achininver beach, where you climb down wooden steps
and across tussocky sand-dunes to reach the water's edge.
And finally, for a proper view of those Enid Blyton adventure islands,
we need to drive to the other side of the Kyle
and look back across to Melness and its hidden gems.
