It is the only fresh water beach in Scotland popular for watersports, sitting at the foot of the dramatic snow-capped Cairngorms near Aviemore in the Highlands.

Now Loch Morlich Beach famed for its water sports has been named in a new research as Scotland's most Instagrammable beach.

With a length of just over 500 metres and 37,021 hashtags on Instagram, it tops the beach list with 65.64 hashtags per metre.

In 2009 the sandy bay received a Resort Seaside award by the Keep Scotland Beautiful campaign - the first time it had been given to a fresh water loch and at 300m above sea level, the highest beach to gain the accolade.

In second place was Achmelvich Bay at Lairg which has become a feature of the North Coast 500 - the 516-mile scenic route around the north coast of Scotland, starting and ending at Inverness Castle.

The Herald:

Achmelvich Bay.​ Source: YouTube (Valhalla)

It has a length of just 143 metres and 7,504 hashtagged posts on Instagram, giving it a hashtags per metre score of 52.48. The study by LuxuryHotel.com analysed Instagram hashtag data and the length of Scotland’s most popular beaches to find the ten beaches with the highest ‘hashtags per metre’.

Coming in third place was Seacliff Beach, in North Berwick.

With a length of just over 600 metres and 25,729 hashtags on Instagram, it has 41.84 hashtags per metre.

The private beach is described as "good if you want to avoid crowds and is excellent for surfing, walking, picnicking, and water sports all year round".

The Herald:

Commenting on the findings, a LuxuryHotel spokesman said: “What this study shows is that it’s not always the most popular beaches that are the best for photography, and Scotland offers lots of hidden gems for those that need a seaside getaway this summer. Locations like Portobello Beach ensure that those looking for a city break in likes of Edinburgh can also enjoy a beach day if the weather permits it, with the close vicinity to the city centre.”

Analysts for LuxuryHotel.com carried out the survey on Monday. They used Instagram  analytics to check how many times a photo had been posted with the related Hashtag. They then took this number and divided it by the length of each beach.