The best sandy beaches in the UK

Some of the best sandy beach­es in Eng­land are locat­ed in Corn­wall. We’ve already told you about Porthcurno which was men­tioned in our roundup of the best UK beach hol­i­day des­ti­na­tions, but there are loads more to shout about. Locat­ed in the Pen­zance region, Lon­grock Beach is a huge favourite with the locals, par­tic­u­lar­ly as it’s dog-friend­ly year-round. Marazion Beach is anoth­er treat, par­tic­u­lar­ly as it ben­e­fits from views of St Michael’s Mount. Head to Chapel Rock and Marazion Har­bour to find the best rock pools, while those of an ener­gic dis­po­si­tion can book them­selves into the wind­surf­ing school.

If you want to pre­tend you’re on a trop­i­cal island, head to natur­ist-friend­ly Pedn Vounder which is exquis­ite with its turquoise waters and white sand, though make sure you’ve got the right footwear to tack­le the path that leads down to the beach – and don’t for­get that there’s no life­guard on duty, so exer­cise cau­tion when swim­ming. Holy­well Bay and Water­gate Bay are both near Newquay, so they both attract large crowds on the hot­ter days, while the views over St Ives Bay from Porth­min­ster Beach are unfor­get­table. In fact, this beach is gen­er­al­ly a lit­tle more peace­ful than oth­ers and ben­e­fits from often calm waters, so it’s a real­ly pop­u­lar with fam­i­lies. For an added dose of fun, you can’t go wrong with Sum­mer­leaze Beach, which is a short walk from Bude. Boast­ing a salt-water pool which is cleaned and refilled dai­ly by the tide, it’s undoubt­ed­ly one of the best sandy beach­es in England. 

If you’re look­ing for the ulti­mate sandy beach in Devon, then your search can end here. Sandy Bay in the Exmouth area is noth­ing short of stun­ning. While it’s not the eas­i­est beach to reach as there’s no near­by park­ing, it’s worth the trek! Sim­ply fol­low the coastal path from Exmouth or Budleigh Salter­ton which will take you around 40 min­utes, or you can walk there from the equal­ly delight­ful Exmouth Beach at low tide – just be care­ful that you don’t get cut off. In fact, check the tide tables before you even con­sid­er doing the walk. Life­guards are on duty in the sum­mer months, and there’s a handy café – plus you can hire deck chairs and pedalos! 

If the crowds of peo­ple at Sandy Bay get too much for you (it can get busy in the sum­mer months), then anoth­er con­tender for the crown of best sandy beach in Devon would be East Portle­mouth which is locat­ed on the estu­ary oppo­site Sal­combe. Alter­na­tive­ly, head to Ban­tham Beach which offers shal­low waters for safe fam­i­ly swim­ming, or Slap­ton Sands and Tor­cross Beach where you can try your hand at surf­ing, wind­surf­ing and canoe­ing. Bet­ter yet, Slap­ton Sands has dis­abled beach access and toi­lets, mean­ing every­one can enjoy this love­ly stretch of water that sits with­in an Area of Out­stand­ing Nat­ur­al Beauty. 

All of these beach­es are in south Devon – but its north­ern shore­line is also love­ly. Gen­er­al­ly slight­ly wilder than the well-main­tained facil­i­ties of the south, north Devon offers unspoilt beau­ty. Just look at Saun­ton Sands as an exam­ple of one of the best sandy beach­es in Devon. Offer­ing more than 3 miles of gold­en sand that’s per­fect­ly off­set by pret­ty beach huts that you can rent for the day, this beau­ti­ful stretch of coast­line is a huge hit with fam­i­lies. Woola­combe Sands is pop­u­lar with tourists, but if you want to escape the crowds, then walk along the beach to Puts­bor­ough Sands. With a few big rocks dot­ted along the sand, this unkempt area is often blus­tery, which is great fun for surfers – though don’t for­get that there’s no life­guard here, so it’s only suit­able for strong swimmers. 

For the ulti­mate unex­pect­ed sur­prise, head to Bar­ri­cane Beach which is next door to Woola­combe. As a peace­ful sandy cove, beach combers are often lucky enough to find exot­ic shells which have been car­ried by the tide from the Caribbean! 

Many Lon­don­ers look­ing to escape the sum­mer heat head to the gor­geous 5‑mile stretch at Cam­ber Sands (which we men­tioned in our round-up of the best UK beach hol­i­day des­ti­na­tions), but one of the loveli­est sandy beach­es near Lon­don has to be Botany Bay. Locat­ed in Broad­stairs, the bay is sur­round­ed by white cliffs and chalk stacks – though do be aware that at high tide, the ends of the beach are cut off. Per­fect for fos­sil hunt­ing and splash­ing in rock­pools, it’s a true gem. 

In fact, the whole Kent region is home to some of the best sandy beach­es near Lon­don. Stone Bay in Broad­stairs is a pop­u­lar haunt with locals (par­tic­u­lar­ly as it’s not quite as devel­oped as the main beach area), but many are sim­ply con­tent to while away a few hours on the gold­en sands of Viking Bay. Famous for its colour­ful beach huts, it’ll look stun­ning on your Insta­gram account. If you get a few snaps, don’t for­get to tag us with the hastag #welove­home­swap so that we can ​‘like’ your photos! 

Fur­ther afield, West Mersea in Essex offers a few sandy beach­es. As a small fish­ing town, this joy­ful lit­tle secret doesn’t often top the list of the best sandy beach­es near Lon­don, but that’s a real injus­tice as it’s sim­ply charm­ing. Anoth­er hush-hush spot that the locals don’t want you to know about is the Isle of Grain Beach in Kent, which is locat­ed between the Thames and the Riv­er Med­way. Come armed with your pic­nic, as this less­er-known spot doesn’t have the facil­i­ties of many sandy beach­es in England. 

So your fin­gers are hov­er­ing over your key­board and you’ve just typed ​‘sandy beach­es UK’ into your search engine. Bet you didn’t expect to be told that Northum­ber­land region has some of the best sandy beach­es in Eng­land, did you?! Well sur­prise folks, because the north east coast of Eng­land is indeed home to some gor­geous stretch­es of sand. Bam­burgh Beach is just one such exam­ple. This excep­tion­al white sand beach affords a love­ly view of Bam­burgh Cas­tle, and is huge­ly pop­u­lar with surfers – you can even book surf lessons if you fan­cy try­ing your hand at rid­ing the brac­ing­ly cold waves! Rock­pools and a small light­house are at the most north­ern part of the beach, and kids will enjoy dis­cov­er­ing the white stag paint­ed on Stags Rock.

Oth­er local delights include Emble­ton Bay which is over­looked by the ruins of Dun­stan­burgh Cas­tle, while the grassy dunes that lead down to Druridge Bay’s 7‑mile stretch of sand are pop­u­lar with fam­i­lies for the fact that they pro­vide shel­ter from wind and sun. Fur­ther north is pret­ty Aln­mouth Beach, but swim­ming and pad­dling isn’t rec­om­mend­ed here – so sat­is­fy your­self with a walk on the beach, then head into the vil­lage for a bite to eat. Fur­ther north still, the horse­shoe-shaped sandy beach at Bead­nell Bay is spec­tac­u­lar. Pop­u­lar with water­sports enthu­si­asts, it’s per­fect for surf­ing, sail­ing, wind­surf­ing, and kitesurfing. 

Fire up your search engine and enter ​‘sandy beach­es UK’, and we’d be pre­pared to put mon­ey on the fact that Scot­land gets a huge amount of ref­er­ences – and quite right­ly so. With the most incred­i­ble stretch­es of white sand beach­es along the west coast, and gold­en sands in the east, this coun­try is spoilt for choice. Now admit­ted­ly Scotland’s cli­mate tends to be a lit­tle chill­i­er than it’s Eng­lish neigh­bour, so you might not spend quite as much time sun­bathing as you would on the sandy beach­es in Eng­land – but when the sun is shin­ing, you sim­ply have to get your swim­ming cos­tume or wet­suit on, and go for a brac­ing swim! 

Tol­s­ta Beach on the Isle of Lewis is just one exam­ple of the beau­ty that awaits you. Pop­u­lar with surfers due to the mas­sive swells, it’s breath­tak­ing. Neigh­bour­ing island Isle of San­day is equal­ly stun­ning, par­tic­u­lar­ly as it’s home to the beach and sand dunes of Tres­ness, which forms part of the penin­su­la. As this remote spot is in the Out­er Hebrides, it’s entire­ly pos­si­ble you’ll have the entire beach to your­self. Pure bliss. Speak­ing of pure bliss, Lusken­tyre Beach on the Isle of Har­ris is noth­ing short of mag­nif­i­cent. As the set­ting for BBC’s Cast­away, this beach boasts miles of white sand – so no real sur­prise that it received one of Tri­pAd­vi­sor Trav­ellers’ Choice Awards. 

Back on the main­land, East Beach at Lossiemouth is pop­u­lar with the locals. With views over the har­bour town and a light­house to explore, it’s a great place to while away some time with the chil­dren. If you’re look­ing for an icon­ic beach, then you can’t go wrong with West Sands Beach at St Andrews. Famous for being in the open­ing scenes of Char­i­ots of Fire, you’re bound to spot a few tourists recre­at­ing the scenes (and who can blame them?!) plus lots of fam­i­lies enjoy­ing the spec­tac­u­lar sand­cas­tle-build­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties here. 

If you tend to pre­fer city breaks, then we’ve got two great sug­ges­tions. If you’re stay­ing in Inver­ness, then make the 16-mile dri­ve to Nairn Beach – with turquoise waters and white sand, it’s a real­ly pop­u­lar loca­tion, but some­how nev­er feels too crowd­ed. Try your hand at pad­dle-board­ing while you’re there, before head­ing back to the city! For an even eas­i­er city break with a sandy beach inter­lude, head to Aberdeen where you can spend some time on the well-main­tained Aberdeen Beach. Stretch­ing 3kms in length, you might even spot a bot­tlenose dolphin. 

Many peo­ple think that beach­es are dif­fi­cult if you have acces­si­bil­i­ty issues, but Scot­land is lead­ing the way by pro­mot­ing their acces­si­ble beach­es. Vis­it Euan’s Guide for a great insight on which beach­es are tru­ly acces­si­ble, or head to North Berwick, Seton Sands, Por­to­bel­lo, St Andrews or Balme­die in Aberdeen­shire where you can hire a beach wheelchair. 

Want to see a blog devot­ed to the best beach­es in Scot­land? Let us know by leav­ing your thoughts in the ​‘Feed­back’ tab above! 

Some of the best sandy beach­es in the UK lie with­in Wales. Offer­ing every­thing from adren­a­lin-fuelled water­sports to pic­ture-per­fect sandy coves for a roman­tic pic­nic, Wales is sim­ply inun­dat­ed with gor­geous options. We’ve already told you about Rhos­sili Bay on the Gow­er Coast and Bara­fun­dle Bay in Pem­brokeshire in our round-up of the best UK beach hol­i­day des­ti­na­tions, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg! 

Harlech Beach is one such exam­ple. With views of the Snow­do­nia moun­tain range, this gold­en sand beach is backed by grassy dunes, mak­ing it a top favourite with kids of all ages. With four miles of sands to go at, there’s plen­ty of space for every­one, and while swim­ming is gen­er­al­ly safe, it’s worth remem­ber­ing that there isn’t a life­guard so you’ll need to exer­cise the usu­al cau­tion. Fresh­wa­ter West Beach (near Pem­broke) is blessed with great water qual­i­ty and pow­er­ful waves, so it’s huge­ly pop­u­lar with surfers and kite-surfers. Park­ing is lim­it­ed, so get there ear­ly if you want to grab a space. 

If you’re head­ing to Angle­sey, you’re in for a treat as the sandy beach­es are pris­tine and peace­ful. Ben­l­lech Beach is sim­ply huge, and offers every­thing from rock­pools to unlim­it­ed space for pad­dling and sand­cas­tle-build­ing. Bet­ter yet, the Isle of Angle­sey Coast Path runs through Ben­l­lech vil­lage, so it’s a per­fect stop-off for hun­gry hik­ers in need of lunch and a refresh­ing dip or pad­dle in the sea! Towards the south-west­ern cor­ner of Angle­sey, you’ll find Lland­dwyn Beach, which is framed by sand dunes and forests. With a nar­row penin­su­la that pokes into the Irish Sea and a strong kite-surf­ing com­mu­ni­ty here, it’s a tru­ly love­ly spot. While not strict­ly a natur­ist beach, you will find the odd naked sun­bather. Treard­dur Bay is anoth­er beau­ti­ful sandy beach in Angle­sey, and it wins addi­tion­al bonus points for being dog-friend­ly year-round. At low tide there’s a huge amount of space for dog-walk­ing and ball games, and it’s an ide­al loca­tion for kayak­ing, canoe­ing, sail­ing and wind surfing. 

Pose the ques­tion ​‘which is the best beach in North­ern Ire­land?’ and you’ll get oodles of dif­fer­ent answers – because the area is burst­ing at the seams with some of the loveli­est sandy beach­es in the UK. 

Backed by lime­stone cliffs, White­rocks Beach in Portrush, Coun­ty Antrim is breath­tak­ing. In the sum­mer months it can get busy (after all, it’s one of the top sights in the area), but vis­it at any oth­er time of the year and you might have this beau­ti­ful stretch of sand all to your­self! Swim­ming in the sum­mer months is absolute­ly fine as long as there’s a life­guard on duty – and con­sid­er vis­it­ing first thing in the morn­ing or the evening for the chance to spot race­horse train­ers exer­cis­ing their hors­es along the length of the beach between White­rocks and East Strand! 

Anoth­er spec­tac­u­lar sandy beach is Port­stew­art Strand, which is locat­ed in Coun­ty Lon­don­der­ry. As a Nation­al Trust-owned loca­tion, this gold­en sandy beach is beau­ti­ful­ly main­tained, and offers some­thing for every­one. Make sure you book your park­ing space before you arrive via the Nation­al Trust web­site, and while you’re there, set aside a cou­ple of hours to do the love­ly sand dune and estu­ary walk – it real­ly is the best way to blow out the cob­webs at any time of the year! 

Oth­er key favourites are West Strand and East Strand Beach­es in Portrush (it’s a busy sea­side resort, so you’ll find plen­ty of eat­ing and enter­tain­ment options local­ly), Helen’s Bay Beach in Ban­gor (con­ve­nient­ly locat­ed near Belfast if you fan­cy a city break), Ball­gal­ly Beach (which is locat­ed on the beau­ti­ful Cause­way Coastal Route), and New­cas­tle and Mur­lough Beach which is one of the top sights in Coun­ty Down. 

A final men­tion has to go to Benone Beach which was announced as North­ern Ire­land’s first ful­ly inclu­sive beach. Work­ing in part­ner­ship with the Mae Mur­ray Foun­da­tion, there are now great dis­abled toi­lets and dis­abled access, and spe­cial­ist beach access equip­ment can be hired for those with lim­it­ed mobil­i­ty, so that every­one can enjoy this excep­tion­al stretch of sand. Pre-book­ing is essen­tial, so take a look at www​.mae​mur​ray​foun​da​tion​.org for more info. 

There are many rea­sons why Gor­leston is one of the best sandy beach­es in Eng­land. First­ly, it’s huge, so there’s space for every­one. Sec­ond­ly, the sand is absolute­ly per­fect for build­ing sand­cas­tles – which is a pas­time that nobody should grow out of. And last­ly, there’s a Banksy cre­ation on one of the seafront shel­ters. The giant arcade claw is sten­cilled above a bench, so pose under­neath it for a pho­to to remember! 

Else­where in this beau­ti­ful region you’ll find a pletho­ra of unspoilt stretch­es of sand. The most pop­u­lar beach in Nor­folk is Holkham, which is backed by the love­ly town of Wells-by-the-Sea. A long way from the car park is a natur­ist beach, so if you want to get a top-to-toe tan, this is the place to go! Horsey Beach is much-loved for its seal-spot­ting oppor­tu­ni­ties and Bran­cast­er Beach is breath­tak­ing­ly beau­ti­ful, while Cromer draws hoards of tourists for the chance to taste its famous crab, which is par­tic­u­lar­ly deli­cious. You can even have a go at ​‘crab­bing’ from the pier between March and Octo­ber, when its ​‘crab season’. 

A quick Google of ​‘sandy beach­es UK’ will direct you to some of the UK’s best-known beach des­ti­na­tions, includ­ing South­wold (which we men­tioned in our roundup of the best UK beach hol­i­day des­ti­na­tions). But if you fan­cy get­ting off the beat­en track and you’re not both­ered about facil­i­ties and easy-access carparks, then Cov­ehithe Beach should be top of your buck­et list. Accessed from the vil­lage, sim­ply fol­low the sin­gle track, past the pigs and around the edge of the field, and you’ll find an incred­i­bly beau­ti­ful and seclud­ed stretch of gold­en sand that very few peo­ple know about. Per­fect for sand­cas­tle-build­ing and kite-fly­ing, this hid­den gem is exceptional. 

Head fur­ther north up the coast, and you’ll find the eter­nal­ly pop­u­lar Low­est­oft Beach, though we much pre­fer the wild beau­ty and remote­ness of Kess­ing­land Beach which is admit­ted­ly a mix of sand and shin­gle – but the shin­gle pro­vides a great dec­o­ra­tive addi­tion to any sand­cas­tles! The beach is a pop­u­lar spot for swim­mers and wind­surfers, but bear in mind that there isn’t a life­guard on duty.