Achmelvich lies just three miles north-west of Lochinver. However, they are three long miles when you take into account the “sporting” nature of the single track road that takes you there, and especially the last mile and a half of it leading down from the B869 coast road.
If our opening paragraph has deterred you from visiting Achmelvich, good: that’s exactly what we want it to do. That way next time we visit we stand even more chance of having this little corner of paradise to ourselves. Seriously, this is a wonderful place, and you shouldn’t let the idea of some unusually challenging single track roads put you off making the short trip from Lochinver.
It’s a bit of an exaggeration to call Achmelvich a village, or even much of a settlement. In effect it’s a small campsite and caravan park, a youth hostel, and some of the most enticingly beautiful beach scenery in northern Scotland (and there’s plenty of competition). It might be more accurate to have called this page “Achmelvich Bay”, particularly as most of the images feature the beach and its surroundings.
So that’s it. A stunning beach of white sand: or more accurately a small collection of beaches nestled amongst the rocky bays and headlands here. Plus some outstanding rock scenery of a sort you can only see in north-west Scotland. One feature isn’t obvious. The small “Hermit’s Castle” built of concrete on a rocky headland in 1950 is an architectural oddity that is now abandoned.
And when you eventually turn your back to the sea and think of tackling the road back to Lochinver, there’s a final wonderful surprise in store. For towering above everything else in inland views is the stunningly improbable profile of the west end of Suilven.
