Balnahard beach, Isle of Colonsay: A magical beauty spot with thousands of years of history

The white sand beach of Balnahard, on the Isle of Colonsay, is as fascinating as it is beautiful.

Balnahard beach on the Isle of Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland.
Balnahard beach on the Isle of Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland.
(Image credit: Alamy Stock Photo)

The white-sand beaches of Inner Hebridean Colonsay are hardly crowded, even in summer, but Tràigh Bàn or Balnahard, being a sheltered bay that little bit further from the beaten track, is very special.

The 3½-mile walk across the machair from An Crosan takes you past a healing well used by 6th-century St Columba, a Gruagach Stone (leave an offering of milk and the ancient fairy queen will watch over your cattle), a Bronze Age house and Iron Age fort.

Old, wrecked ship's timbers emerge from the sands at Balnahard Beach, Isle of Colonsay.

Time your arrival at beautiful Balnahard to low tide for a glimpse of the remains of wooden steamship SS Wasa, which was beached in 1920 after a fire. Its timbers and cast-iron hull still jut dramatically from the sand. The view past Mull and the Firth of Lorne to Jura is equally impressive.

See more of Secret Britain


The ancient yew trees in Kingley Vale.
(Image credit: Alamy Stock Photo)

Kingley Vale, West Sussex: The ancient, twisted yews that are the oldest living things in Britain

Today's Secret Britain spot is a mysterious and magical spot in West Sussex.

Binevenagh, Norhern Ireland.
(Image credit: Alamy Stock Photo)

Binevenagh, Northern Ireland: Lava-hewn crags and cliffs at the end of one of the planet's great railway journeys

Our Secret Britain piece today takes a look at the view from the top of Binevenagh in Co Londonderry.

St Sampson's Church is the backdrop to the meadow in Cricklade.
(Image credit: Alamy Stock Photo)

North Meadow, Cricklade: An ancient field where half a million wildflowers create a wall of colour

The spectacular North Meadow, in Cricklade, Wiltshire, is a Secret Britain sight we should all enjoy at least once.

Milestones - composite image:L Neil McAllister/Alamy Stock Photo; David Ridley/Alamy; Ian Shaw/Alamy; Education Images/Getty Images; Wales heritage photos/Alamy; Graham Hardy/Alamy; Chris Cole/Alamy; Shutterstock; Jonny White/Alamy Stock Photo

Credit: Getty/Alamy/Shutterstock

The secret history of the milestone, from Roman Britain to Industrial Revolution and beyond

The milestones which help travellers find their way across Britain have been a feature of the nation's highways and byways

Osea Island.
(Image credit: Alamy)

Osea Island, Essex: A secret so well-kept that even the locals have barely heard of it

Annunciata Elwes looks at a little-known spot accessible for just a few hours a day.

Annunciata Elwes

Annunciata grew up in the wilds of Lancashire and now lives in Hampshire with a husband, two daughters and an awful pug called Parsley. She’s been floating round the Country Life office for more than a decade, her work winning the Property Magazine of the Year Award in 2022 (Property Press Awards). Before that, she had a two-year stint writing ‘all kinds of fiction’ for The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, worked in internal comms for Country Life’s publisher (which has had many names in recent years but was then called IPC Media), and spent another year researching for a historical biographer, whose then primary focus was Graham Greene and John Henry Newman and whose filing system was a collection of wardrobes and chests of drawers filled with torn scraps of paper. During this time, she regularly gave tours of 17th-century Milton Manor, Oxfordshire, which may or may not have been designed by Inigo Jones, and co-founded a literary, art and music festival, at which Johnny Flynn headlined. When not writing and editing for Country Life, Annunciata is also a director of TIN MAN ART, a contemporary art gallery founded in 2021 by her husband, James Elwes.