Its yellow sands and grassed-over dunes, from afar, look as pristine as anywhere on the planet.

Yet the long, windswept beach of Balnakeil Bay, on Scotland’s very north-west edge, is far from immune to the world’s epidemic of rubbish.

So much so that a community clean-up charity has appointed what is believed to be the country’s first ever “plastic ranger”. 

Mother-of-one Hannah Smith has been taken on to patrol the beach, near Durness in Sutherland, to keep it as free as possible of plastic. 

The farm manager’s wife was employed by environmental group Plastic@Bay after receiving funding from power company SSE. The group has been keeping a running tally of how much plastic is picked up, with the haul regularly topping five kilos a day in winter.

Mrs Smith, 32, from Islay, who moved with husband David, 29, and son Angus, five, to the Sutherland village a few months ago, said: “Visitors come to Balnakeil and other beaches in the area and are full of awe – and quite rightly so– they think they are pristine. But they don’t look closely and see what’s under their feet. There is plenty of plastic, particularly micro plastic.”

She has now begun regular weekly patrols of Balnakeil beach and others in the Durness area, cleaning and surveying plastic pollution.

Part of her role is to talk with members of the local community and schools about plastic pollution in the area, the work of Plastic@Bay and plastic alternatives.

She said:”Visitors come to Balnakiel and other beaches in the area and are full of awe - and quite rightly so - they think they are pristine. But they don’t look closely and see what’s under their feet. There is plenty of plastic, particularly micro plastic.

“In the summer we estimate that one kilo a day of plastic washes up at Balnakeil, and that is one of our better beaches. We have some of the best beaches in the world and we are covering them with plastic. It’s very sad. We all need to care more the environment and I am just trying to play my small part. Education is vital too in helping people understand what we are doing.

“People look at our beaches and don’t see what is underneath. We all need to care more about what we are doing to our planet.”

Plastic@Bay started out in April 2017 by organising annual beach cleans for Surfers Against Sewage.

Dr Julien Moreau of the group said: “Hannah will be a big help in what we are trying to do – not only in removing plastic from beaches but raising awareness of how it ends up in the sea in the first place.”

And clearing discarded plastic from some of the most stunning, but hard to reach, beaches in Scotland has now got easier – and faster.

That is because Plastic@Bay recently received nearly £12,000 to purchase an electric quad bike and trailer to remove the rubbish.

Dr Moreau said: “The new equipment will help us remove plastic pollution from difficult to reach coastline. This is good news for local fisheries because removing plastic from our coastline prevents it going back into the sea and being ingested by fish and entering the food chain. And it’s good news for local wild life, seals, sea birds, whales etc because removing fishing ropes and nets removes the risk of entanglement.”

In a previous clean of a Sutherland beach, around 70 per cent of the rubbish picked up was fishing nets, ropes and components such as plastic pegs used for fishing.

And, in its first year, Plastic@Bay collected a staggering 5000lbs of plastic from just one of the North’s most beautiful beaches.