Two Dorset beaches have the whitest sand in the UK
Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside - Dorset makes it onto the top 10 list
The UK's beaches with the whitest sand have been revealed and Dorset has not only one, but two of them.
In order to find the brightest and whitest beaches Parkdean Reorts analysed the tone and texture of the grains.
Studland Bay and Bournemouth have made it to the top 10 of their whitest sand beaches.
50 beaches were analysed, here is the top 10:
- Kynance Cove, Cornwall
- Appletree Bay, Isles of Scilly
- St Ives, Cornwall
- Studland Bay, Dorset
- Bournemouth, Dorset
- Whitby Sands, Yorkshire
- West Wittering, West Sussex
- Brancaster, Norfolk
- Fistral Beach, Cornwall
- Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland
Sand colour is mainly determined by the material that the sand is made up of, the different rocks and minerals that are common around the coast of that particular beach.
For example, beaches with quartz that contain traces of iron tend to give sand that classic yellow hue found on beaches like Whitby Sands.
However, if the sand is made up of quartz without these impurities the sand appears whiter, such as those found in the south like Kynance Cove in Cornwall.
This is why sands all over the UK tend to be entirely different shades.