ITS beauty was immortalised in the opening scene of the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire.
But now people visiting the West Sands at St Andrews face the prospect of parking charges, a pay barrier and an end to free camping by motorhomers.
The beach has been overseen by Fife Council and the Fife Coast and Countryside Trust until now but under new arrangements, the St Andrews Links Trust, set up by Act of Parliament in 1974 to run the Old Course, will assume responsibility in April for the area as far as high water mark.
It means the council will be limited to looking after access roads and the public toilets at the West Sands, while the Fife Coast and Countryside Trust (FCCT) will continue work on the dunes and the nearby Eden Estuary.
Fife councillor Dorothea Morrison said the move that could mean the introduction of parking charges at West Sands, with a barrier re-introduced.
She told a meeting of the local community council that townsfolk might be protected from the charges imposed on visitors.
She said: "The Links Trust is very clear that they don't want local people having extra expense."
Income from parking charges would be "ringfenced", she said, for maintenance of the area.
A spokesman for the Links Trust said: "We are working with all relevant parties, looking at the West Sands as a whole and exploring any additional work that could be undertaken to ensure, that as a much loved resource for visitors and members of the community, the West Sands are maintained in the best possible way for years to come."
The two-mile long West Sands gained world fame in 1981 when it featured in the opening sequence of Chariots of Fife.
In 2012 it played a role when the Olympics came to London, with participants in the torch relay running on the sands.
It also featured in the Olympics opening ceremony.
In recent years the dunes backing the beach have been at serious risk of erosion, though the FCCT's major dune stabilisation programme is beginning to pay off.
In 2014, it was revealed that social media had sparked a trend of holidaymakers camping for free at the beauty spot.
Tourists were said to parking their caravans and camper vans at the West Sands in St Andrews after being tipped off online that it was a good place to camp without having to pay.
Fife Coast and Countryside Trust said wild camping as defined in the outdoor access code did not apply in the area because it was a "recreational area and a car park".
Notices were erected forbidding overnight parking, but motor-homers who claim they have no legal force have been ignoring them.
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