Sands of Breckon

Framed by the cliff scenery of north Yell, the sandy beach at Breckon is one of the island’s highlights. It holds a Seaside Award from Keep Scotland Beautiful and has been highly rated by visitors. Although the bay is open to the Atlantic, the beach is well sheltered from most wind directions and the dunes provide an infinite variety of picnic places on good days. The sand, a mixture of rock and shell particles, is piled deep and shelves quite steeply.

There’s plenty of interest around this area, too. The nearby cliff-tops offer good walking and great views. Botanically, the area is rich, with more than 80 species of plants recorded. Archaeological remains suggest that the area has been settled for at least 4,000 years. There is evidence of Viking and Iron Age settlement and a number of interesting finds have included pottery, Viking combs made from bone and even Roman coins. However, many people will simply want to relax and absorb Breckon’s simple peace and beauty.

The dunes and machair along this beautiful stretch of coastline formed and continue to change due to rising sea levels.

During the Ice Age, glaciers scoured the Shetland landscape, creating glacial “till” – a mixture of mud, sand and stones – deposited on the lower ground. Rising seas since the ice melted 10,000 years ago have reworked these sediments to form beaches and sand spits around the islands.

In some places, crushed seashell remains have been added to the sediments to form shell-sand. Breckon has the largest area of blown shell-sand in Shetland. Sand blowing inland has been trapped by marram grass and built up to form dunes. Behind them is machair – grassland with many wild flowers that benefit from the calcium in the sand.

Sand dunes and machair are fragile systems. If the plants that bind the thin soil layer together are lost, the sand beneath can be blown away by the wind. Breckon suffered serious erosion in past centuries which stripped the sand down to bedrock in places.

The bedrock is part of the Moine Supergroup – sediments that built up along the edge of an ancient continent and were altered by heat and pressure in a series of events between 900 and 420 million years ago. Sometimes crumbly garnets from the bedrock are found in the sand.

Unst is the most northerly point of the Shetland Islands and is accessible via a ferry which departs from Gutcher on the island of Yell
Take the A970/A968 to Toft and cross on the ferry to Ulsta
Continue on the A968 until you reach the turning for Gloup Fishermen's Memorial. Turn left and follow the B9082 to Cullivoe
Continue onto the B9083 towards Gloup and follow the road until you reach the turning for Breckon. Turn right, follow the road to the end and park
Walk down onto the beach
Please note this walk contains two-step stiles

Archaeology
Sea level rise
The Moine Supergroup