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About manonabeach

On a beach…welcome to manonabeach.com, where I’ll regularly add video of my beach visits, so you can enjoy a flavour of the beach, even when you’re not there.

Linklet Bay

Season: summer

Linklet Bay faces east on the island of North Ronaldsay, which is connected by plane or boat to the Orkney mainland. This is an area of outstanding natural beauty. The beach stretches in a long arc and is a super location for an extended walk. A little known feature of the island is that the sheep here eat only seaweed, producing the rich North Ronaldsay mutton, a real delicacy. While you’re on North Ronaldsay, do explore the whole island. You’re about as far north as you can get on Orkney.

All life is connected, with Nina at the beach.

Lichen behind the beach; Nina takes a look.

Nina explains what you can see in a rock pool.

The scene at Linklet Bay.

Sanday Island

Season: summer

Sanday Island on Orkney is blessed with several beautiful beaches and the atmosphere on the island is peaceful and welcoming. The Heritage Centre is well worth a visit to set the island in context, for example illustrating Sanday’s links to The Battle of Jutland. There’s also a reconstructed croft. My advice is to follow your instincts on foot. There are many hidden bays, coves and beaches to enjoy, a surprise beyond each headland. On this occasion I visited Catasand beach on the eastern side of the island, a wide expanse of sand with a smaller entrance to the sea. You can hear the archaeological and seafaring associations in the testimonies from Sanday Heritage Centre.

Ruth, from Sanday Heritage Centre, explains the setting at Catasand.

Shipwrecks on Sanday, in the Heritage Centre with Myra.

The scene at Catasand.

Rackwick Bay

Season: summer

Rackwick Bay is the second manonabeach® destination on Hoy, which is a wonderful island, natural and unspoilt. The beach setting is exceptional, bounded by two hundred metres high cliffs. It is also the starting point for a walk to the famous Old Man of Hoy. There is a strong crofting heritage here, with a sensitively restored croft called Cra’as Nest (Crow’s Nest), which you can visit. This is a fine spot for camping, supported by a bothy. The beach itself is notable for large, weather-rounded stones, distinguished by subtly different colours.

What the beach means to Roisin.

A misty setting at Rackwick Bay.