Paradise is a golden Wester Ross beach with millions of seashells

Where is it?

A tiny clachan called Mellon Udrigle, hidden away along a dead-end road on the Rubha Mor peninsula in Wester Ross. There’s not much there - just a scattering of crofters’ cottages, a beautiful golden beach and millions of tiny seashells.

Why do you go there?

To listen to the waves, look up at the deeply familiar mountain skyline and feel like I’m a long way from the rest of the world.

How often do you go?

Not as often as I’d like.

How did you discover it?

My mother’s family spent their summer holidays there in the 1950s, my siblings and I were taken there in the 1980s and I’ve been back a few times as an adult, mostly just on day trips.

For a few years there didn’t seem to be a property you could rent, but now there is again, so I’m hoping to go for a proper holiday in the next year.

What’s your favourite memory?

I was a very free-range child and would spend hours on my own, exploring every inch of the beaches, headlands, rockpools and trails (don’t tell my mother about my rock-climbing adventures on the cliffs.)

I remember really enjoying a treasure hunt my father set for us, with clues laid all over the territory we had got to know. There was one hidden in a cairn out on the headland and another buried on the beach.

Emily Chappell (Image: free)

It must have taken us hours to find them all and 10-year-old me would have been very excited about whatever small edible treat awaited us at the end. Now, of course, it’s the treasure hunt itself that is the fondest memory.

Who do you take?

Only very special people.

What do you take?

On childhood holidays I remember taking a huge stack of library books and working my way through them on rainy days.

Next time I visit I’ll hopefully be midway through writing one, so I’ll be accompanied by a laptop, some notebooks, and a very large number of Post-it notes. And my knitting, for when it all gets too much.

What do you leave behind?

Mellon Udrigle is one of the places where I feel most reliably connected to my childhood self, so I’ll be trying very hard to leave behind all of the anxieties of adulthood.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that there won’t be much of a phone signal, so that I can ignore my responsibilities for a while.

Sum it up in five words.

Peaceful. Remote. Sandy. Mountainous. Magical.

What other travel spot is on your wish list?

Next summer I’m hoping to make it to the North Ronaldsay Sheep Festival, where visitors help locals to rebuild the stone dyke that protects the island’s famous seaweed-eating sheep.

It combines so many of the things I love: physical exertion, island scenery, good Scottish hospitality and - I hope - knitting.

Emily Chappell hosts the popular Inside Out series at Edinburgh International Book Festival, with events on August 10, 11, 17 and 24. For tickets, visit edbookfest.co.uk