Nairn is famous for its amazing beaches, everyone loves long walks, splashing in the waves, building sand castles and looking for sea gems.

Unfortunately though, this is not the case for people who use wheelchairs, and it’s not uncommon in Nairn to see locals and visitors alike parked in their wheelchair on the grassy edge of the beach, watching their family and friends. Sadly, there is currently no way to access the beach by wheelchair.

However, with your help we can change that. There are specialist beach accessible wheelchairs with big inflatable tires so you can go right into the sea. Over 46% of people with disabilities have mobility challenges, so it’s not surprising that beach wheelchair projects have been popping up all over Scotland over the last few years. Dornoch beach wheelchair project, for example, has been a huge success with over 160 beach wheelchair outings last summer. We had great fun trying their wherlchairs out (see photos below).

Nairn can be the same! Let’s work together to raise the funds needed to support this fantastic project.

Our aim is to provide two wheelchairs (to start with), one for adults and one for children so that the beach becomes accessible to all; as well as a hoist and a shed to transfer into the beach wheelchair in privacy.

At the core of this is inclusivity, fun and wellbeing. We aim to support accessibility for individuals who, due to mobility issues, may not be able to enjoy the exhilaration of being on the beach with the wind blowing in your face and the waves tumbling over the sand. We have such a great resource in Nairn in our beaches and it is so important that this can be shared with people of all abilities.

Your generosity and support will make this happen, thank you.