Summer holidays have come to an end and the kids are back at school (if you live in Kintyre anyway). Hopefully you all had a great time, whatever you were up to. You may remember that before the holidays we set ourselves a wee Campbeltown Beach Challenge to see how many different beaches we could visit over the holidays. Well, the results are in…we managed 12! And didn’t get anywhere near to getting round them all!
Here’s a wee run down of the ones we visited, in the form of a beach diary.
Bellochantuy (28th Jun)
☀️☀️Lunch on the terrace of the lovely Argyll Hotel then onto beautiful white sand. Perfect for paddling – no stones and lovely shallow water. Built a sand speedboat, jumped waves and got chased by (imaginary) sharks.
Dalintober (29th Jun)
☁️🌦Quick stop at Dalintober Beach on way to Mum and Dad’s. Looked for beach ‘treasure’ (haul included; 4 crabs – 3 dead, 1 alive – various sizes of jellyfish – all dead – loads of cockle and mussel shells and a handful of sea pottery) and did ‘cave paintings’ in the sand using a razor clam shell and stone age spear head (i.e. pointy rock).
Machrihanish. (1st July)
💨🌥 Went to Machrihanish for some pirate adventures! Started off in the bay but decided there were too many stones to dig for treasure so went across the golf course to the other beach instead. Pirate adventures continued at the playpark after a quick coffee and cake at the Old Clubhouse.
Brunerican Beach, Southend. (7th July)
☀️☀️Don’t think I’ve ever been on this beach! (We normally go to Dunaverty). Gorgeous day and we had the beach to ourselves. Picnic lunch, made a beach garden then tried to dam the incoming tide! (Unsurprisingly, we were unsuccessful).
Westport (11th July)
☀️⛅️Beach is looking fab just now. Broke with tradition and went dam building in the summer (it’s normally a New Year’s Day tradition for us – lot colder but lots more water!). Also made sand termite heaps and tried a bit of stone stacking before going for a paddle and jumping some waves. Saw some surfers out too although there wasn’t much surf for them! Didn’t explore the sand dunes this time – will leave that for another day.
Kildalloig (16th July)
🌥 Small but perfectly formed! Sandy bay (with very squidgy sand, perfect for deep 👣), stones, rock pools for exploring and lots of shells and beach treasure to find.
Macharioch (1st Aug)
☀️☀️It’s almost two beaches in one. We started at the far right hand side. Built a dam, clambered on some rocks explored a bit. Sand is too course and shingly for building good sand castles though so we headed along the other end where it’s much softer sand – much better for drawing, building and paddling.
Machrihanish beach (7th Aug)
💨⛅️ Picnic with friends. Outdoor art gallery (sea creatures drawn with sticks), sand castles and paddling for the kids. Beach walk towards Westport for some of the adults before a rain shower sent us scurrying back to the village.
Tangy (10th Aug.)
☀️Dammed the river, explored the beach (new one for us) pretending to be cavemen then paddled and generally splashed around in the river and sea.
Southend (13th Aug)
⛅️ A three beach day to round off the summer holidays; Carskiey in the morning followed by lunch (sadly Muneroy was fully booked so went to the golf club instead) and then a wander along Dunaverty. Headed to Kiel to see if we could see any seals before heading home. Kept passing lots of people on horseback enjoying the same beaches as us!
I make that 12 beaches, in just over 6 weeks, within about 15 miles of Campbeltown. Not bad. Could’ve been better though – we missed the Gauldrons, Peninver, Torrisdale and Carradale to name but a few. Oh well, the holidays may be over, but there are still plenty of weekends for more beach exploring! Hopefully our wee Campbeltown Summer Beach Challenge has inspired you to explore all the wonderful beaches around South Kintyre too!
