Bun Amhainn an t-Srath'-chailleach

A view of Sandwood Bay in Sutherland taken from a rocky outcrop visible at low tide.

Looking towards the sea stack of Am Buchaille and the island of Am Baig. The stack is 65 metres (213 feet) high and was first climbed in 1968 by the mountaineers Tom Patey, Ian Clough and John Cleare.

Taken from the high ground to the north of Sandwood Loch. Often photographed, but you can't got bored of this place, especially when the sun shines.

Looking just south of west. In the foreground, the outflow from Sandwood Loch has clearly changed direction from that shown on Explorer 446. Further afield, from L to R we can see Druim na Buainn, the Am Buachaille sea stack, and the islet Am Balg.

Looking just east of north towards Cape Wrath. Sandwood Loch, on the right, is only a few metres above the ocean. The outflow can be seen beyond the rounded mound - it does tend to move around from time to time. There is now a good track from Blairmore NC1960 (walkers only, no vehicles), but back in 1967 even the track was a fairly rough walk.

Only a few metres of height to descend before the Atlantic Ocean is reached. Note that when this photo was taken the outflow was narrower and further east than shown on modern mapping.

The remnants of a Spitfire which crash-landed on the beach at Sandwood in 1941 (the pilot walked away OK).

“The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.” - from the poem 'Footprints'

Parph moor, relatively dry ground, but I'd imagine it would be very boggy in other months.

Looking across the open area from the outlet from the Loch.... Am Buachaille is seen in the distance on the right.

I was last here 20 years ago but I can’t for the life of me remember the 6½ km walk in. But I have the photo to prove it so must have. Sandwood Bay is far more popular today but I wonder if the wild campers that were there know of the ghostly stories associated with it. In the 1940s Sandy Gunn, a small landowner from Kinlochbervie was looking for some lost sheep with two friends. On the moonlit beach, they saw a man with a hairy beard and whiskers. Two weeks later a boat was wrecked and the body of one of the crew was washed up where the apparition was seen by Gunn and his friends. They recognised the corpse as the man they saw. Later that decade a party of visitors from Edinburgh walked in for a spot of fishing with a local gillie as a guide. A man in a sailor’s tunic and cap was seen but when the gillie approached him he found there was no one there nor was there any footprints in the sand. In the 1950s some more Edinburgh visitors were picnicking when they saw a bearded sailor who then vanished again leaving no footprints. On another occasion, a crofter and his son gathering firewood saw a man in a sailor’s uniform who shouted at them to leave his land. The hauntings are not restricted to the beach. There are the remains of a cottage at Sandwood Bay and some who bivvied there while it still had a roof reported hearing footsteps walking from room to room. Not many recent reports though. Perhaps the ghost was exorcised when an Edinburgh lady of high integrity was sent a piece of wood from the staircase of the cottage. She reported china knocked over, the sound of footsteps and other noises, the faint smell of alcohol and tobacco and the shadow of a bearded sailor who shook curtains before vanishing. Why should someone send a piece of wood to a lady in Edinburgh is a mystery. All these sightings seem to stem from Sandy Gunn. Now he may well be a relation to Alexander Gunn who at the turn of the 20th century climbed down a gully at Sandwood Bay to rescue one of his sheep. It was not a man Alexander saw but a mermaid marooned on a rock awaiting the tide. She had reddish yellow curly hair and wreath of seaweed and stared at Alexander with a frightened expression, Perhaps it was this folk memory that was in the back of Sandy’s mind on that night in 1940. From my photo-diary for 25 June 2019 see Link

A wonderful bay. Standing on the beach with no one around and just the sound of the waves, as it was on both occasions when we visited it, is an experience. Big sky country, big sea country. Unfortunately it's now something of a tourist honeypot. Forget about solitude.