Slabs of slate stack together like Jenga blocks and sandy coves hide twinkling rock pools…

The UK’s beach scene is beaut. We’ve done some digging and found the five best spots for you to build sandcastles and starfish in the sea.

Durdle Door… sounds like an old-timey insult, is actually a curving limestone archway and shingley beach.

Head to this stretch of the Jurassic Coast and you’ll be sharing the sand with Nikons and tripod stands. Walk to Durdle Door from Lulworth Cove to see the grassy cliffs hugging the beach from above. Down at sand level there are sea caves to explore.

Half a mile of crescent shaped bone-white beach, hugged by low sand dunes and lush green countryside... Isle of Scilly’s Pentle Bay is like a dream you had.

You have to get the ferry or plane here from Newquay, Lands End, or Penzance. Then you can island hop this unspoilt cluster of islands. All the beaches are photoshop good, but Pentle Bay on Tresco island is the crown jewel with sun-bleached white sand and see through water that dolphins play in. The paradise vibes are strong.

Pedn Vounder is the beach that makes you work to see it’s beauty…

You have two options, take a boat or walk for 15 minutes from Treen to get to this remote patch of supermodel shoreline. It’s perched on the Penwith Peninsula and it’s inaccessibility is part of the appeal.

Want to get nakey nakey? No woz. At high tide it gets cut off from neighbouring beaches, which is when the nudists do their thang.

Holkham Beach is the daddy of all UK beaches. It’s miles and miles of flat powdery sand and overgrown grassy dunes. There’s also a surprising amount of sprouting wildflowers and a fluffy pine wood.

There’s a basin that’s shaped like a half-moon which fills up at high tide. Gwyneth Paltrow took a dip here in the closing scenes of Shakespeare In Love.

About as far north as you can go without falling into the sea… Scotland’s Outer Hebrides islands might be hard to get to but the beaches here give the Caribbean a run for its money (though the water temperatures might say otherwise).

Eye-wateringly beautiful sheltered coves and sandy dunes are at every turn on the Isle of Harris but the star of the show is Luskentyre beach.

Cycle the 3 mile single track road that links the beach to Harris’ main road for the best vistas and photo ops. And keep your eyes peeled for whales - orcas, minkes and humpbacks all roam these shores. Check out our Hebridean Whale Trail post for the best spots to spy them.