Myrtos Beach

Myrtos is on the north-western coast of Kefalonia, in the Ionian Islands, between the Agia Dynati and Kalon Oros massifs. The beach lies at the foot of cliffs that rise several hundred metres, and the road down is a series of hairpins cut into the rock.

Its colour is geological. The shingle is white limestone, worn round, and the water over it reads as an intense blue that darkens abruptly where the shelf drops away. That drop is the beach's hazard as well as its appearance: the bottom falls off steeply a short distance out, and there is often a strong undertow. Kefalonia is also seismically active — the 1953 earthquake destroyed most of the island's buildings, and rockfall along this coast remains a live risk, with sections of the beach periodically closed.

The beach is around seven hundred metres long, backed entirely by cliff, with no shade and no natural shelter. Lifeguards operate in season and the flag system is worth heeding here more than at most Greek beaches. The 1953 earthquake that levelled Kefalonia dropped parts of this coast and raised others, and the island's building stock is almost entirely post-war as a result.

Development is a canteen and sunbeds in season, a car park at the bottom of the road, and viewpoints on the way down where almost every photograph of the beach is taken. Antisamos on the eastern side of the island is the sheltered alternative, and Assos, a village on a peninsula ten minutes north, is where most people stop on the way.

The shingle shelves away within a few metres and the undertow is strong, which the colour does not advertise. Kefalonia is seismically active and this cliff sheds rock — do not sit close under the face. The viewpoints on the road down are where every photograph of this beach was taken.