Ramla Bay

Ramla il-Ħamra — the red sand — is on the northern coast of Gozo, the smaller of Malta's two main islands, reached by a narrow road down a valley from Xagħra or Nadur. It is the largest beach on Gozo and the only one of any size with sand rather than rock.

The colour is the reason it is recorded here. The sand is a distinct orange-red, derived from the iron-rich clay and limestone of the surrounding valley rather than from anything volcanic or organic. Behind the beach lies an unexcavated Roman villa, and above it Calypso's Cave — associated by long tradition with the Odyssey, which is a claim of the kind Malta makes frequently and which nobody can settle.

The beach is a broad crescent with a gradual sandy entry and generally calm water on this sheltered northern coast. It shelves gently and is well suited to children. The valley behind is agricultural, terraced and green in spring, which is an unusual backdrop for a Mediterranean beach and does more for the view than the sand does.

Development is deliberately minimal — the beach lies within a protected area and the buildings amount to seasonal kiosks and a small car park at the end of the road. There is no development on the sand and none is permitted. San Blas, over the headland to the east, is the smaller and steeper version and is reached down a track most cars should not attempt; between them they are Gozo's only real sand, on an island otherwise made of rock platforms and salt pans.

Orange-red sand from the iron in the valley behind, a Roman villa nobody has excavated, and Calypso's Cave above it with a claim on the Odyssey that Malta makes and nobody can settle. The colour is clearest wet. There is a car park that fills by ten and nothing else.