Clashnessie

Limited parking

Sandy beach

Dog friendly

Nearest toilets Clachtoll or Drumbeg  (Go before you get here!)

Clashnessie Falls

Clashnessie Bay is a sandy beach with a mild microclimate, due to the closeness of the Atlantic Ocean Gulf Stream.  Situated ten miles north of Lochinver, Clashnessie Bay is clean, quiet and beautiful with a rocky inlet and a big sandy shoreline. The beach is a fabulous adventure for children and full of things to explore. Also known as Red Beach, there is indeed and red tinge to the sands, particularly on the main strand, more so than round the corner at low tide. Clashnessie Bay is famous for its ever changing weather and water colour, from tranquil turquoise to white foamy waves.

The township of Clashnessie is scattered around the sandy beach of Clashnessie Bay and derives its name from the Gaelic clais an easaidh, meaning glen (clais) of the (an) waterfall (easaidh), referring to the waterfall at the head of the shallow glen in which most of the houses stand. Today Clashnessie has just nineteen houses distributed widely over roughly a square mile area. Ten of these houses are original nineteenth-century crofters' cottages.The ruins of the community mill, of the kind with a horizontally mounted water-wheel, can still be seen at the side of the burn which runs down from the waterfall. The traces of the old poorhouse can still also be found on the roadside.

Clashnessie Falls

The path to the falls, signposted from the beach car park, is fairly rough and boggy. A short walk upstream will take you to the Clashnessie Falls, a fifteen meter waterfall, dropping from the lochans above. e careful to stick to the path. The bottom of the falls are very impressive, and the water comes down with a lot of force even when there isn't much coming down. If you back-track a little and walk around the side of the falls (on the left hand side of them) and then upwards you will see some smaller falls that come from the loch that supplies the falls. It is very tranquil up there but be careful not to go too close to the top of the falls!

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