A Runner’s Dream
Why Nairn’s secret beach is my favourite place to run
Nairn, with its award-winning beaches and famed micro-climate, has a lot to offer the runner searching for Scottish wilderness and escape. Whisper it gently, but we are very blessed when it comes to the sheer variety of runs on our doorstep in this Scottish seaside town. There is the mighty Culbin pine forest which you can literally lose yourself in all day. There is the bluebell run along the tumbling peaty River Nairn from the sea to Cawdor castle, with the pretty blooms waving at you as you pass through the rolling Nairnshire countryside. But my favourite run is always on the beach. Specifically, the ‘secret’ beach to the west of the town.
The beach towards Whiteness, west of Nairn, was simply a beach before social media christened it the ‘secret’ beach. It is a wide-sweeping sandy beach with an unusual carse ecosystem just beyond the pebbles that make up the bank. Its secrecy is simply a factor of it being out of sight and out of reach of the many tourists who congregate on the Central and East beaches which also bless this northeast Scotland town. At the far end of the secret beach is a fisherman’s bothy and disused manufacturing yard with relics of the booming oil industry of yesteryear. On foot from Nairn, it is a couple of miles, either along the edge of the Links golf course, (“The Nairn”)…
