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Smirisary
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Start near the end of the Glenuig to Smirisary road, NM
654774, OS Explorer 390
Possibly the most popular walk in the area, the car park at
the end of the public road sometimes gets full.
Walk to the end of the road and through the gate.
Follow the path past the cottage across the field, go through
another gate and take the left track at the cairn. This track
climbs over the hill and eventually brings you out at the
top of Smirisary village. A few years ago this village was
derelict but many of the houses have now been reconstructed
as holiday homes.
If you look down towards the sea you will see two houses on
the far side of the valley at the bottom, walk down until
you are near the top one of these. You should see a low ridge
running southwards (to your left) and this has a path along
the top of it which will eventually take you to Whitesands,
a fine sandy beach.
On the way the path crosses a steep ravine with fairly rough
paths on either side and other parts of this track are rather
wet, but the beautiful beach is worth the effort.
When you return, you can cross the village keeping parallel
with the shore - the first white house you come to, with a
small wind turbine, was once the home of Margaret Leigh, who
wrote "Spade Among the Rushes", a book about Smirisary
fifty years ago. Behind her house is a steep track which rejoins
the original track back to the car park.
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