Edinburgh's Best Beaches

Bathing season may have arrived late this year, but with hotter weeks expected, now is the time to consider what beaches to head for.

The Marine Conservancy Society (MCS) last week published its Good Beach Guide, reviewing 758 beaches across Britain looking, in particular, at the water quality.

One Edinburgh beach made it into the MCS's Recommended list of beaches - Portobello Central, although this doesn't include the whole length of Portobello's long beach, it is a welcome turnaround from a previous failing grade.

Nine East Lothian beaches, two in the Borders, and three in Fife also made the grade for good water quality.

Sandy beaches at Crammond, Portobello West, and Fisherrow West in Musselburgh earned basic passes.

However, Lower Largo and East Sands in St Andrews in Fife were among the 46 UK beaches that failed to meet even the basic standards set 35 years ago in European law.

In total, fifty Scottish beaches (see best Scottish beaches) were among the 461 UK beaches recommended by the MCS guide.

Definition of clean

Robert Keirle, MCS Pollution Programme Manager, says a particular area of concern is the amount of dilute sewage flowing into coastal waters from Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs). These are designed to act as emergency outlets for overloaded sewerage systems during periods of heavy rainfall, but can discharge at other times as well.

Listings on the Good Beach Guide map include the number of sewage outlets at each beach.

Keirle says: “There are 22,000 CSOs in the UK, and only around a quarter of these pipes are monitored to see how often they are putting untreated sewage into the sea. MCS wants all of these pipes mapped and monitored, and for the public to be told at the time when, and for how long, the sewage is flowing. Mapping costs relatively little yet it could make the difference between an enjoyable trip to the beach or one that ends up in A&E with ear, nose and throat infections or stomach upsets."

So how does the MCS decide whether water quality is good?

Popular bathing beaches have to have ongoing tests of the water quality as part of EU legislation.

Regular samples are taken of the water and levels of pollution from human sewage and livestock recorded. Beaches are compared against the EU's Mandatory standard and a Guideline standard (which, MCS points out, is 20 times as strict as the Mandatory standard). MCS uses these to make assumptions about water quality, with a slightly more strict interpretation of the samples than the EU. 

"MCS Recommended is our top standard for excellent water quality. To achieve this standard beaches must meet the European Guideline standard, ALL samples must pass the European Mandatory standard (compared to the 95% pass rate required by the European Guideline standard) and local continuous sewage discharges must be properly treated."

MCS has been publishing the Good Beach Guide since 1987. It began as a ‘Golden List’ of beaches in 1960, maintained by Tony and Daphne Wakefield who tragically lost their six-year-old daughter, Caroline, after she contracted polio swimming at a sewage contaminated beach.

Since 1976, there have been European standards for bathing water quality and the water industry has invested heavily in cleaning up raw sewage.

Stricter EU standards for water quality are being introduced in 2015.

Monitoring for the new standards begins next year, and if a beach consistently fails to meet these legal limits between then and 2015, MCS says, "bathers could be faced with a sign advising them not to enter the water when they head to the beach."

MCS Recommended beaches in Scotland

1. Portobello Beach - Central (James Street), Edinburgh
2. Thorntonloch, East Lothian
3. Whitesands Bay, East Lothian
4. Dunbar - Belhaven, East Lothian
5. Peffersands, East Lothian
6. Seacliff, East Lothian
7. Broadsands, East Lothian
8. Gullane, East Lothian
9. Longniddry, East Lothian
10. Seton Sands, Longniddry, East Lothian
11. Coldingham Bay, Borders
12. Pease Bay, Borders
13. Kinghorn - Pettycur, Fife
14. Elie (Woodhaven & Ruby Bay), Fife
15. Tentsmuir Sands, Fife
16. Carnoustie, Angus
17. Easthaven, Angus
18. Arbroath - West Links, Angus
19. Arbroath - Victoria Park, Angus
20. Lunan Bay, Angus
21. Montrose, Angus
22. St. Cyrus, Aberdeenshire
23. Balmedie Country Park, Aberdeenshire
24. Collieston, Aberdeenshire
25. Peterhead Lido, Aberdeenshire
26. Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire
27. Rosehearty, Aberdeenshire
28. Cullen, Moray
29. Hopeman, East Moray
30. Rosemarkie North, Highland
31. Dornoch (Caravan Park), Highland
32. Dornoch - burn mouth, Highland
33. Embo Beach, Highland
34. Golspie - North, Highland
35. Dunnet Bay - Murkle Bay/Dunnet, Highland
36. Findhorn, Highland
37. Strathy Bay, Highland
38. Sango Bay, Durness, Highland
39. Achmelvich Bay, Highland
40. The Sands of Breckon, Shetland
41. St Ninians Isle, Shetland
42. West Voe Sands, Shetland
43. Tresta Sands, Shetland
44. West Sandwick Beach, Shetland
45. Ganavan, Argyle & Bute
46. Lunderston Bay, Inverclyde
47. Largs - Main, North Ayrshire
48. Dunure, South Ayrshire
49. Croy, South Ayrshire
50. Culzean, South Ayrshire