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.
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.
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Today's Secret Britain spot is a mysterious and magical spot in West Sussex.
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Our Secret Britain piece today takes a look at the view from the top of Binevenagh in Co Londonderry.
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Credit: Getty/Alamy/Shutterstock
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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.
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‘Calf’s brains have a bland, gentle richness that soothes and cossets': Tom Parker Bowles on the joys of eating offalEating offal it is more sinned against than sinning, but it offers the ultimate in magnificent, fully immersive eating.
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The wave of downsizing about to hit the property market in the UKThe Chancellor of the Exchequer's Budget — and specifically the 'Mansion Tax' — has fired a starting pistol for downsizers, and the waves will wash across the entire property market. Annabel Dixon spoke to property experts across the country to gauge how it will play out.
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St Patrick’s Chapel ruins, Heysham: The mythical Lancashire ruins with a heavenly viewAnnunciata Elwes takes a look at St Patrick’s Chapel ruins, a Morecambe Bay landmark.
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Suisnish, Isle of Skye: The atmospheric ruins of a Clearance villageBeauty now reigns in a tragic spot where hundreds of villagers suffered during the Clearance
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Covehithe beach, Suffolk, where the cliffs crumble like cakeThe most eroded beach in Britain has a post-apocalyptic feel.
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Clydach Ironworks, Monmouthshire: Ruins in the gorge that inspired ShakespeareAn oasis of quiet now stands where the steam hammers thudded at this Welsh ironworks, in a river valley that may have moved Shakespeare to write A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
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Royston Cave, Hertfordshire: A mysterious site full of sacred energyOur Secret Britain series continues with a Hertofrdshire cave whose true nature remains unknown.
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John Bunting War Memorial Chapel, Scotch Corner: The painstaking transformation of rubble to War MemorialAnnunciata Elwes celebrates the effort that turned a derelict house into a memorial.
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The Garden of Cosmic Speculation: The surreal space where Lewis Carroll and Willy Wonka meet Capability BrownSurrealism, philosophy, nature and gardening come together at the Garden of Cosmic Speculation, as Annunciata Elwes explains.
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The Airman’s Grave, Ashdown Forest: A touching and little-known memorial to victims of war and fateA wartime tragedy in East Sussex's Ashdown Forest is among our Secret Britain picks, as chosen by Annunciata Elwes.
