(156) Smirisary Village and White Beaches (Highland)

Route Summary
This is a short coastal walk in an extraordinarily beautiful but remote area, with great views out to the islands of Eigg and Muck. The part-abandoned village of Smirisary, in a stunning pastoral setting, is your gateway to a little clutch of evocative white sand beaches.

Duration: 2.5 hours.

Route Overview
Duration: 2.5 hours.
Transport/Parking: No public transport. There is a small car-parking area at the walk start/end point.
Length: 4.650 km / 2.91 mi
Height Gain: 200 meter.
Height Loss: 200 meter.
Max Height: 65 meter.
Min Height: 1 meter.
Surface: Moderate. There is a clearly defined path throughout, apart from a small section across the meadow in Smirisary. Some path segments are rough, boggy, or muddy.
Difficulty: Medium.
Child Friendly: Yes, if children are used to walks of this distance and overall ascent.
Dog Friendly: Yes, but on lead due to unenclosed grazing sheep.
Refreshments: The Glenuig Inn serves snacks and light lunches during the day.

Description
This is a memorable little there and back coastal walk in a wildly beautiful landscape in the remote and rugged Moidart area of West Scotland. At the turning point on the route, the walk takes in some stunning white shell-sand beaches of the type made famous by the film Local Hero. At an isolated low promontory, with small islands close by offshore, there are three beautiful little white sand beaches, two facing north and one facing south. Particularly if the weather is fine you will want to spend some “quality time” in this special place! On the way, if your walk is in the Summer months, you will be surrounded by wild flowers as you pass through an area of species-rich coastal grassland, where there are fine views of the islands of Muck and Eigg, with the high hills of Rum also visible behind Eigg. Early on, and again during the return, the route passes through the once deserted settlement of Smirisary occupying a seemingly idyllic sheltered setting under grassy cliffs. Information about the history of the village is elusive. What is certain is that, in times past, the tiny subsistence crofting community at Smirisary would have been one of the most remote places in Scotland. Even today there are no roads in the village. All over the West of Scotland these remote little communities stopped being viable as modern life and expectations changed. We suspect that the last of the original occupants moved on or died off in the 1950’s. However, in recent times a number of the houses have been restored as “away from it all” weekend and holiday retreats with very limited access to modern utilities. Moidart is a wild and beautiful West Highland region on the Atlantic shoreline, peppered with white sand beaches and surrounded by fjords and freshwater lochs, forming part of the Rough Bounds, an area renowned for its remote and rugged landscapes. Lying a few miles offshore, the enticing Small Isles, of Rum, Eigg, Muck and Canna, are accessible by ferry from
Mallaig.

Links:
Photos from walk  
Download Route Guide  (PDF with illustrated Waypoints)
Download GPX file  (GPS Exchange Format)
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Access Walk on Wikiloc