Path to Rushy Bay beach in Bryher.

© Stephen Rees/Shutterstock

Rushy Bay

Top choice in Isles of Scilly


Bryher is fringed by fabulous beaches, but Rushy Bay is the largest – and many would say the loveliest. South-facing and sheltered by the hummock of Watch Hill, it has powder-soft sand and super swimming.

The remains of a gun battery built during the English Civil War can be seen near the eastern end of the beach.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Isles of Scilly attractions

1. Great Par

0.21 MILES

A grand curve of sand on the west side of Bryher, super for rock-pooling and paddling.

2. Watch Hill

0.72 MILES

For the best views on the island, hike up to the top of Watch Hill, from where you can drink in a panorama right across the archipelago. It's a truly…

3. Samson

0.85 MILES

This tiny island really is for Robinson Crusoes. It's been abandoned since 1855, and now the only signs that anyone ever lived here are a few crumbling…

4. Shipman Head Down

0.9 MILES

It might not be immediately obvious to the unschooled eye, but sprawling over this hilly heathland is a vast Neolithic burial site – one of the largest of…

5. Tresco Abbey Garden

1.02 MILES

Tresco's key attraction – and one of Scilly's must-see gems – is this subtropical estate, laid out in 1834 on the site of a 12th-century Benedictine…

6. Bant's Carn

2.35 MILES

One of the best-preserved Neolithic chamber tombs in the Scilly Islands, on the northwest side of the island on the edge of Halangy Down. It's still…

7. Halangy Down

2.36 MILES

While Neolithic settlers probably only visited Scilly sporadically, by the Iron Age settlers had arrived and made a life here, eking out a living by…

8. Garrison

2.63 MILES

Perched on the hill to the west of Hugh Town, this forbidding fort has a history stretching back almost 350 years. Though it was begun in Tudor times, the…