Sandwood Bay

The name Sandwood Bay probably derives from the Viking name 'Sandvatn' ("sand water") There are also remains of Pictish settlement in the area. On 30 September 1941, Sergeant Michael Kilburn from 124 Squadron at RAF Castletown was flying a Spitfire south west of Cape Wrath when the engine failed. He crash-landed the plane on the beach at Sandwood, and managed to escape uninjured. The wreck remained on the beach and over time the entire bodywork was eroded away by the sea but its engine, a Rolls-Royce Merlin, remains largely intact and occasionally emerges into full view whenever tidal and weather conditions permit. The farmstead of Strathchailleach, around 1 mi east of the bay, was built in…

In January 2018 Scottish fiddle player Duncan Chisholm released his sixth solo album, inspired by Sandwood Bay, entitled Sandwood. In December of the same year the Scots Trad Music Awards named the album their album of the year. Duncan Chisholm participated in a subsequent podcast hosted by Matthew Bannister as part of his "Folk on Foot" broadcasts, in which folk musicians revisit specific geographic locations that have inspired them in their creative works. Chisholm took Bannister to Sandwood Bay to discuss how this affected him in the making of his 2018 album.