The_Sunday_Times_Travel__21_July_2019

2 July 21, 2019The Sunday Times

Travel 40 Best British Beaches

2 BOGGLE HOLE, NORTH YORKSHIRE

One of the many joys of the north’s finest

beach is that it’s self-limiting. There are 38

parking spaces on Bridge Holm Lane, and

when they’re filled, late arrivals wish they’d

got up earlier. For the lucky few, it’s a steep

five-minute walk down the lane to Mill

Beck. Follow it to the beach, where cricket

pitches of sand lie between ribs of rock

where creatures that missed the tide spend

rueful days. Half a mile north lies the

tourist trap of Robin Hood’s Bay; 150 yards

west is the Boggle Hole Youth Hostel,

rightly famous for its cake, supper club and

friendly staff. Book well in advance and

you can stay the night (private rooms from

£39pp; yha.org.uk).

3 MARLOES SANDS, PEMBROKESHIRE

It’s a long drive to Marloes, down the

narrow lanes of Pembrokeshire’s far west.

Then it’s a long walk from the National

Trust car park, past Runwayskiln Farm,

where they’ve turned the pigsties into

dining booths, then down the lane and

left along the field edge. Suddenly you’re

looking down on Marloes Sands, and you

may take the Lord’s name in vain. This is a

beach of epic proportions, a mile long and

backed by 130ft cliffs. Jagged outcrops of

black shale rise like mountain ranges from

the flat sands to contrast anarchically with

the red sandstone cliffs. There’s a stream

and, further along, a waterfall. Walk the

other way, past Raggle Rocks, and at low

tide you reach Gateholm Island and the

rarely visited, sunset-facing Albion Sands.

4 WOOLACOMBE, DEVON

Woolacombe is owned by the Parkin

family, who have turned one of the

world’s finest beaches into one of the

country’s most sensitively managed.

With enough space on its three-mile

length to accommodate a festival crowd,

Woolacombe is a playground for surfers,

kayakers, kite fliers, cricketers and castle

builders. The brightly painted beach huts

flat, and the Gosker Rock is sticking out of

the beach like a crashed meteorite. “Can

we go down there, Mum?” you ask, but

she shakes her head, leading you along

the prom to where the last of the tide is

draining in a shallow stream from the

harbour. There are mysterious steps and

secret gardens where old couples with

Thermos flasks are sitting and

staring into the blue. You’re

staring at the fishing

boats, high and dry

on the wet sand.

There’s a sign

saying Harbour

Beach, and

slippery steps

leading down,

but your mum

drags you past.

Up on the rocky

promontory, above

higgledy-piggledy

painted houses on

Penniless Cove Hill,

there’s a castle to be

explored. Your dad is lagging

behind — he’s eyeing up the

sandwich boards offering mackerel fishing

trips (£15pp; tenbyfishing.co.uk) — and

then you turn a corner on Bridge Street.

There’s a medieval gate arch, through

which you can see sand, sky, sea and the

fort on St Catherine’s Island. There’s ice

cream and deckchairs (£2 a day), and the

giggles of kids riffing with the keening

of gulls. Down by the water, there’s a

queue of day-trippers waiting to board

the yellow boat to Caldey Island, half a

mile south, where monks make chocolate,

cheese and mysterious perfumes (£14;

children £7; caldeyislandwales.com).

But that’s for tomorrow.

To the southwest, beyond Iron Bar

Sands and its secret cave, is South Beach.

It runs for a mile and a half, all the way to

Giltar Point, and it’s one of the best spots

in Wales for beachcombing. But that’s for

the next day. Today, we’re staying right

here on Castle Beach (right), the best in

Britain. And building a castle.

Our chief travel writer, Chris Haslam, is one of the world’s leading experts on the British seas

his annual pilgrimage around our shores, whittling hundreds of options down to a definitiv

W

hen you spend a

significant part of the

year touring the British

coastline, you can’t help

but become sensitive to

magic. You smell it on the air, see it in the

reflections off the sea, hear it in

the cries of the gulls and feel

it crackling in the sand

beneath your feet. On

some beaches you

hardly feel it at all,

on others it comes

in buckets and

spades. Many

beaches need

to be utterly

empty for it to

be detectable.

On others, the vibe

is amplified by the

upwelling of human

happiness, and

those with the most

powerful magic work

in all weathers.

If you love the seaside, then you know

the feeling. It’s nostalgia, anticipation

and that never-quite-satisfied curiosity

of coming to the edge of our island and

gazing into the unknown.

Which brings me to Tenby, in

Pembrokeshire — the Sunday Times

British Beach of the Year 2019.

Imagine being six years old again. Your

dad has found a parking spot on the Croft,

above Tenby’s North Beach (far right). The

tide is on the ebb, the sands are vast and

The sands are vast and

flat — and the giggles

of kids riff with the

keening of gulls

Ou

h

BEST

BEACH

2019

TENBY, WALES

THE REST OF THE

TOP 10

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER Our guide includes plenty of pet-friendly beaches

£

WHAT’S YOUR

BRITISH BEACH

OF THE YEAR?

Let us know and

tell us why at

travel@sunday-

times.co.uk —

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£250 towards a

Greek break with

Sunvil. Read this

week’s winning

letter at thesunday

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