The 'glittered with seashells' beach in Gwynedd named the nation's best
A beach in North Wales that is 'glittered with seashells' has been named the best in the country. The annual Times and Sunday Times Best UK Beaches guide has been published for 2025.
The 17th edition of the guide is the definitive and most comprehensive list of the UK's 50 best beaches. For Wales, the country's finest beach has been named as Shell Island(Mochras), south of Harlech, Gwynedd.
Shell Island boasts long sweeping sandy beaches with stunning views of the mountains of Eryri - and is home to one of Europe's biggest campsites.
In his description of Shell Island, Chris Haslam, the award-winning chief travel writer at The Times and The Sunday Times, said: "The beachcombing is astonishing: perfect scallops, fragile tusks and razors, unblemished turitellas and, most prized by conchologists, tiny cowries.'
(Image: Shell Island)
Chris Haslam has selected the UK's top 50 beaches from a total of 756 that he personally visited and inspected on a month-long campervan tour of the British and Northern Irish coasts.
The guide showcases the unrivalled beauty of the UK seaside, evaluated through a rigorous 11-point inspection checklist. Criteria include water quality, cleanliness, accessibility, car-parking facilities, lifeguard presence, hygiene levels at restrooms and showers, and dog-friendliness.
There were two other North Wales sites on the list. These were the immensely popular Traeth Llanddwyn on Anglesey and Aberdaron on the tip of the Llyn Peninsula.
Best beaches in Wales
WALES'S BEACH OF THE YEAR: Shell Island, Gwynedd
Dunraven Bay, Glamorgan
Three Cliffs Bay, Glamorgan
Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire
Whitesands, Pembrokeshire
Mwnt, Ceredigion
Aberdaron, Gwynedd
Traeth Llanddwyn, Gwynedd
Chris Haslam said; 'I knew Shell Island was a winner when I parked up beside the dunes. I could see Eryri (Snowdon) to the north, the Llyn Peninsular to the west and, right in front, a beach of flat sand that glittered with seashells. I could have spent a very happy week camping here.'
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