Sand ripples on Luskentyre Beach in the Western Isles of Scotland.

Luskentyre Beach - Isle of Harris visitor guide showing a virtual tour of 'Luskentyre Beach' linked to an interactive map with local and travel information. 360° panoramas from Western Isles.

Harris is famed for its beaches. In truth, a fair part of its highly-indented coastline is very rocky. But where the coast of Harris is sandy, it does offer some of the very best beaches you will find anywhere. And perhaps the best of them all, certainly the largest and the most spectacular of them all, is Luskentyre Beach.

Luskentyre Bay bites deeply into the western side of South Harris. Although the isles are called Lewis and Harris, they are actually one single land mass. Luskentyre Beach is located just a few miles south of Tarbert. Tarbert is the capital of Harris, but it is also here that the island is so narrow that it almost becomes separated into two. Just like at Luskentyre, a deep indents have been carved so far into the land on both coastal sides of the island, that they almost meet in the middle to separate Harris and Lewis into two islands.

At high tide much of the bay is submerged, becoming part of the Sound of Taransay and looking out to the island of Taransay. This island gained media recognition after a BBC television programme based a group of people here for one year to live on the island's resources as 'castaways'.