From sweeping Cornwall beaches to remote Scottish strands, visitors to the UK will never be short of epic coastlines to visit and cool off during the summer.

Here are 11 of the best beaches across the United Kingdom to get you thinking about your next escape to the sea.

A mile north of Lizard Point in Cornwall, the National Trust–owned inlet of Kynance Cove is a showstopper, studded with craggy offshore islands rising out of blue seas that seem almost tropical.

The cliffs around the cove are rich in serpentine, a red-green rock popular with Victorian trinket-makers. It's a beautiful spot and, when the seas aren't too rough, a good place for a wild swim.

South of Cape Wrath, Sandwood Bay boasts one of Scotland’s best and most isolated beaches, guarded at one end by the spectacular rock pinnacle Am Buachaille.

Sandwood House is a creepy ruin reputedly haunted by the ghost of a 16th-century shipwrecked sailor from the Spanish Armada.

Herm's star beach wouldn't look out of place in the Caribbean, if it weren't for the severe-looking bare rocks offshore. Teal waters lap at the wide expanse of blindingly white sand at Shell Beach.

These wonderful side-by-side beaches join up at low tide to form one epic stretch of golden, flat sand. At the eastern end is the small cove of Godrevy, with its island lighthouse.

To the west lies Gwithian, a great sandy arc that extends to the Hayle River. The grassy cliffs are an important wildlife habitat, carpeted with wildflowers in summer, and nesting sites for seabirds.