Which Highland beach has been ranked 'cleanest' in the UK?
A BEACH in the north Highlands has scooped the title of the cleanest beach in the UK, based on new research.
Beautiful Embo beach has topped a ranking of cleanest beaches not just in Scotland but also in the UK.
Cleanipedia, an online site which gives cleaning tips, decided to try to find out where the country’s cleanest beaches were in advance of the Great British Beach Clean which takes place later this month.
A team of researchers examined top-rated TripAdvisor reviews for beaches with mentions of “clean” and associated keywords.
A spokesman said: “We analysed user reviews on TripAdvisor of beaches in the UK that received ratings of four and five stars for keywords relating to clean - such as clean, cleanest, immaculate, pristine and spotless.
“We calculated which beaches had the highest number of keyword mentions per review to determine which beach could be considered the “cleanest”.
And Embo Beach came out strongly on on top with 60 per cent of reviews mentioning how clean it is.
Three Scottish beaches made it to the top 10 cleanest beaches in the UK - Embo beach, Troon beach and Burntisland beach.
Ayrshire beaches were well represented in the top 10 cleanest beaches in Scotland with three making the cut.
The Great British Beach Clean is a 10-day long initiative organised by the Marine Conservation Scoeity between Friday to Sunday, September 15-24. Members of the public are encouraged to help during these dates with cleaning up the UK’s beaches.
The ranking in Scotland was:
1 Embo beach (60%)
2 Troon beach (38.89%)
3 Burntisland beach (38.27%)
4 Fraserburgh beach (37.62%)
5 Irvine beach (37.61%)
6 Saltcoats beach (37.04%
7 Sandend beach (34.21%)
8 Cullen beach (33.84%)
9 Girvan beach (31.76%
10 Leven beach (31.39%)
The ranking in the UK was:
1 Embo beach (60%)
2 Lido beach, Wales, (54.7%)
3 Whitmore Bay Beach, Barry Island, (41.4%)
4 East Looe beach (40%)
5 Walton on the Naze beach, Colchester, (39.5%)
6 Troon beach (38.89%)
7 Aberporth beach, Wales, (38.8%)
8 Saundersfoot beach, Wales, (38.3%)
9 Burntisland beach, Fife, (38.2%)
10 Tenby North beach, Wales, (37.9%)