TERRAIN: Firm sand and surfaced single track road. Mostly flat walk. A few gates.
Dog-friendly route
GETTING THERE: The walk starts and ends at Luskentyre Beach car park. There is a bus service on the island which serves Luskentyre.
Public toilets located at Luskentyre Beach car park
View full route description
From Luskentyre Beach car park go through the gate to the right of the toilet block (heading NW – not towards the cemetery).
Follow a sandy footpath next to a small burn and over the sand dunes – it will lead you out onto the white sands of Luskentyre Beach. You can only go in one direction along the beach, which is left (SW).
Continue around the bay until the first beachfront cottages come into view across the sand dunes, approx 1.5 miles along. There is also a burn which flows out onto the beach here. Turn left to go over the sand dunes, following the course of the burn (N) along a sandy footpath which leads up the side of a cemetery and through a gate onto a single track road.
Turn left along the road for approx half a mile to return to the car park.
WALK REPORT – 9th April 2024
My first time in the Outer Hebrides and of course I couldn’t go to Harris and not pay a visit to Luskentyre Beach. Two visits, as it turned out!
Our trip coincided with Storm Kathleen which brought gusty winds to much of the north-west. In fact we were lucky to get there, with our ferry being the last to make it across before several days of cancellations. Cosy as our wee cabin was, I wasn’t about to stay cooped up for the entire trip, so on went the waterproofs and woolly hat and out we ventured to explore.
On the plus side, the car parks were empty! We sat there long enough to let the latest downpour pass and watched as someone else as daft as us battled against the wind to go and experience this iconic place. It was certainly keeping us in suspense: although we’d caught glimpses of the white sands during the drive down the road, the car park is nestled behind the sand dunes, meaning that we couldn’t actually see the beach itself from there.
A few minutes walk to the other side of the dunes and we were there. Wow. It really was breathtaking – literally! The wind was vicious – the sand was being blown all over the place. It was certainly dramatic! We attempted to walk along a bit, intending to do the circular walk described above, but we had to give up in the end. As we got to the bend in the bay the wind was worse than ever and we were literally walking with our eyes screwed up so small to prevent the sand getting in them, that we could barely see where we were going. What do you want to do? my husband shouted over the wind….. There’s just no point in continuing, I hollered back, feeling deflated. And we headed back to the car. Being sand-blasted on the face by pristine white sand is no more enjoyable than being sand-blasted on the face by the golden sands of Ayrshire. We could come back another time…..
…And that we did, just two days later. The wind had calmed, the car park was mobbed…. Normal service had resumed. The wild surf had been replaced by soft turquoise ripples worthy of a bare-foot paddle. The swirling white sand now remained on the ground (!) And the Taransay Hills which had been wrapped in cloud two days ago stood proudly and invitingly across the bay.
To my delight when we reached the southernmost point of the beach, the white pony was there! I had seen many photos of it online and on social media, but didn’t actually imagine I’d see it. As we walked past and stopped to take photographs (see cover image), he/she was completely unfazed; didn’t even raise an eyebrow…. Do horses have eyebrows??
The next part of the route was along a sandy path beside a cemetery and then out onto the “main road” which we followed back to the start. It struck me that there is another cemetery next to the car park…. Seems like a lot of gravestones for such a remote place, no? I really enjoyed the walk back along the road: it offered a view over Luskentyre and the surrounding hills from a higher vantage point, which you see on the drive in but of course can’t fully enjoy in the same way as you can moving along it at walking pace.
At the end of the road where the last cottage is, we were lucky enough to see a highland cow in the field. What beautiful eyelashes they have! It was also lambing season, and one ewe had gotten into a spot of difficulty – the farmer chasing after her to try and help deliver her baby. As we passed the commotion we could see rubber gloves were involved, and a lot of blood…. We didn’t get to see how that story ended, but hopefully in a positive way.
Isn’t it funny the things you remember when you think back on a walk!
If you’re visiting Luskentyre I can definitely recommend trying out this circular walk rather than going along the beach and back the same way. You’ll see things from a completely different perspective on the way back (and it’s also more direct!).
