BEACHES & WALKS
There are a huge number of beach and walking / climbing options in the area.
Our local beach, Ardnastang Bay, is just a 400m stroll away and there are wonderful sandy beaches at Ardtoe, Sanna Bay and Morar.
There are mountains aplenty with Ben Nevis and numerous Monros just across the Corran Ferry and 28 Corbetts and Donalds on ‘our’ side. The walks through our local National Nature Reserve at Ariundle are rightly famous as being one of the few places to find an oak woodland classed as temperate rainforest.
Below are just a few of the countless options for exploring the great outdoors using Jack or Jill as a base.
ARDNASTANG BAY
This wide sweeping bay is a 5 minute walk from ‘Jack’ and ‘Jill’, made easier with a recently-completed path built by the local community. If you are lucky you might spot seals or otters and the small ‘island’ at the east end of the beach has a wonderful natural flat rock to sit on and look down the lengths of Loch Sunart. The bay has a very gentle slope and is widely used by locals as a good spot for swimming.
LONGRIGG BURN PATH
This wide sweeping bay is a 5 minute walk from ‘Jack’ and ‘Jill’, made easier with a recently-completed path built by the local community. If you are lucky you might spot seals or otters and the small ‘island’ at the east end of the beach has a wonderful natural flat rock to sit on and look down the lengths of Loch Sunart. The bay has a very gentle slope and is widely used by locals as a good spot for swimming.
ARDTOE BEACHES
Ardoe Beach – the closest ‘fine sand’ beach – is around 35 minutes drive to the west. There’s easy parking and incredible view across to the Small Isles’ and lots of pretty small sandy bays to chose from (type ‘Ardtoe’ into google maps).
SANNA BAY
Sanna Bay has one of the loveliest stretches of beach in the UK with incredible views out to the Small Isles and the Hebrides. A full day’s excursion as despite is being ‘only’ 33 miles from Sunart Strawbale you should expect it to take around 1 hour 20 minutes due to the twisty (but very pretty) single track road. It is well worth the trek though, particularly on a sunny day. Easy parking with a 400m walk to the beach but there are no shops/facilities so stop in one of the villages enroute if you’ve forgotten something. You may well have the entire place to yourself, if you are lucky.
CAMUSDARACH BEACH, MORAR
Camusdarach Beach, also known as ‘The Local Hero Beach’ is part of the extraordinary series of sandy bays between Arisaig and Morar. Around 1 hour 15 minutes drive to the north it also has good parking and wonderful views across to Skye and the Small Isles.
KNOCKVOLOGAN BEACH, MULL
An even longer day out but well worth it to explore the many beautiful sandy beacheson the Ross of Mull. This is one of the very best and pretty much certain to be empty. Free parking at Knockvolagon farm and walk down the track to the beach and explore round a couple of bays before reaching the best one. Other to visit might be Kilvikeon, Score and Queen’s beaches.
ARIUNDLE OAKWOOD NATIONAL NATURE RESERVE
Ariundle Oakwood National Nature Reserve is just 10 minutes drive away and rightly famous as a precious fragment of ancient oak woodland.
Ariundle Oakwood NNR is on the west coast of Scotland in the Sunart area of Lochaber. It is an ancient, native broadleaved woodland, part of Scotland’s rainforest, which clings to south-east facing slopes on the northern side of Strontian Glen.
Ariundle Oakwood is associated with similar woodlands surrounding Loch Sunart. Altogether, they make up the largest continuous area of this type of oak woodland in Britain. This habitat type needs special protection because it is so rare in Europe.
TIORAM CASTLE AND SILVER WALK
Just 30 minutes drive away is our favourite walk, the Silver Walk taking in Castle Tioram at the start. It’s where we take all our friends when they visit.
The castle is the ancient fortress of the MacDonalds, built in the mid 13th century and extended in the 14th century.
It is situated in a strategic location on a rocky tidal island of Eilean Tioram at the confluence of Loch Moidart and the River Shiel, occupying the whole summit of the rock in Moidart.
The circular Silver Walk (~3 hours) is one of the truly special paths of the Highlands, a fascinating route cut out of the rock through truly spectacular scenery. Add in the castle, a ‘cleared’ hamlet, pine-fringed hill lochs and a view out to the Isles, and you have a stone-cold classic half-day walk – surely one of Scotland’s finest.
GALAXIES, THE NORTHERN LIGHTS AND SUNSETS
The views of the night sky can be quite extraordinary, as illustrated by these images taken during his stay by keen astonomer and ‘Jill’ guest, Steve Oates. The strawbale houses are well suited for viewing the night sky as we have very little light pollution and have a Bortle 2 rating (for those who know about these things).
Easier to see are the Northern Lights (this one taken in early 2025). It helps to have downloaded an aurora app which alerts you as to when one is taking place.
We also get some amazing sunsets too!
MOUNTAIN WALKING
There are so many incredible mountains in easy range of Strontian, almost too many to count! Lots of Corbetts on ‘our’ side of the ferry and numerous Monros on the other side in and around Glencoe and the Ben Nevis area in particular. These are just a few of the peaks my boys and I walked up (generally when the weather was friendly).
