KW14 7SB
Sandy Beach with caves to explore
Blue Flag Beach
SCA - Special Conservation Area
Pubic Toilet
Car Park with Information Point
No dogs during summer months
This remote, wide, sandy beach sits on the very northern Scottish coast. The River Strathy runs into the bay to the west of the beach and it is enclosed by cliffs to the east. Strathy Bay is surrounded on all sides by magnificent, hilly scenery. The bay is also home to many caves around the beach and a number of sea stacks. There are some outstanding views from the beach out over the Pentland Firth.
The beach is a popular place for surfing as it sheltered from the biggest winter swells and strong winds. Walking along the nearby hilltops is also a popular pastime, particularly in the months of May and June when many wildflowers and cowslips will be blossoming just behind the beach. See if you can find the northern marsh orchids and the spring squills flower?
There is a small car park along Strathy East with a log cabin that acts as an information centre and some toilets. The beach is reached from the car park by walking on the path past the cemetery, over the small hilltop.
The area is quite remote and facilities are limited, the nearby Strathy Inn does food, including a children’s menu. There is a dog ban on the beach during the summer months.
A short walk from the car park at the end of the road takes you to the lighthouse. Commissioned in 1958, this was the last manned lighthouse to be built in Scotland, and also the first to be run on electricity.
Like all of Scotland's lighthouses, it was fully automated in 1996 and is now monitored and controlled from Edinburgh.
Coastal Wildflowers to look out for
Northern marsh orchid can be recognised by its vivid purple-violet flower colour, as well as by its lip marked with dark spots and lines that do not usually form loops. It is difficult to distinguish from other marsh orchids, such as Dactylorhiza praetermissa, and was not described as a separate species until 1920.
This orchid is predominantly found in the northern part of the UK extending from the West Wales coast and up into Scotland and the Western Isles. It is also found in Northern Ireland, but is rare and very localised in Southern Ireland. Found in damp coastal dune slacks in Scotland and Wales from late May into July. In the Outer Hebrides they grow in large colonies in the sea meadows (machair).
Flowering Spring Squill brings a violet-bluish haze to the coastal cliffs. It likes wild places where winds beat the cliffs with spray. It is found Mainly along the north and west coasts of the UK, but can also be found in places on the east and North coast of Scotland. It likes coastal grassland and flowers from April to May.
Like the Bluebell, this and the many other squills used to be included in the Lily family, Liliaceae. Following DNA analysis, they have been reclassified as members of the Asparagus family. These perennials rarely grow much taller than 10 to 15cm. The sky blue star-like six-petalled flowers 1 to 1.5cm across grow in spikes of typically 6 to 10 flowers each with a dark blue bracts at the base. Like most cliff-top wildflowers, it is low growing and very tolerant of salt spray
Strathy Point is a Special Conservation Area (SCA) and all the coastal fringe of Strathy Bay is designated as an area of SSSI, so please treat the natural environment, its flora and fauna with respect and note that vehicles should not be driven onto the sand dunes. Some scarce species live in machair and it is of real conservation value as the variety of plants encourage invertebrates, which in turn attracts birds. Machair is also the favoured habitat of the great yellow bumblebee.
Captain Ivory's Cave
When I was researching Strathy for this page I found that one of the caves on the beach was known as "Captain Ivory's Cave" and I was instantly intrigued about this supposed smuggler who lived in a two room cave in Strathy. It is listed as a monument in the Highland Council's Historic Environment Records but I couldn't find much more apart from the location map below and the rumour that it was home to a smuggler. "Captain Ivory's Cave: a large, two-roomed cave in which the captain of a smuggling lugger lived for almost a year. Name Book 1873."
Then I found a reference to him in a google doc and managed to track down an account about him that had appeared in the Celtic Monthly in 1903. I am currently transcribing it, so I will upload it to my blog when I have finished. There was also a picture in the article which I will add now. I will definitely be visiting this cave when I do the NC500 this May.
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