A well-loved wildlife watching site in Angus is ready to welcome even more visitors, following the completion of recent improvement works.
Montrose Basin Visitor Centre, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this month, is one of the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s flagship visitor sites. It is home to interactive displays, a gift shop, and wheelchair accessible viewing windows and telescopes. To celebrate the anniversary, the Trust are offering free entry on Friday 27 June and will be opening a new exhibit highlighting key milestones and memories from the last 30 years.
The centre sits within the wider Montrose Basin Wildlife Reserve, an enclosed tidal estuary which is home to some of Scotland’s most spectacular wildlife, including kingfishers, ospreys and harbour seals.
The recently completed work enhances the visitor experience with improvements to the car park, wildlife viewing hide and pond dipping area. The Trust will be running a series of events at the dipping pond over the summer holidays and can also deliver bespoke sessions for schools and community groups.
Image © Scottish Wildlife Trust
Joanna Peaker, Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Visitor Centre Site Manager for Montrose Basin, said: “What better way to kick off our 30th anniversary celebrations than with a new and improved visitor experience? Whether you’re looking for the perfect vantage point to enjoy breathtaking views over the basin, a trip back in time with our new historical display or a wild day out with the family, we’ve got you covered.”
The improvement works have been supported by FCC Communities Foundation – a not-for-profit business that awards grants for community projects through the Scottish Landfill Communities Fund.
The Trust have also been working with local branches of the Men’s Shed and Enable Works, with volunteers painting and providing building materials for the pond dipping area.
Keri Johnson, Employment Co-ordinator at Enable Works, said: “A huge thank you to the team at Montrose Basin for welcoming young people from five Angus high schools for hands-on work experience. Through preparing, sanding and painting the fence around the dipping pond, they’ve been getting stuck in and exploring what life is like behind the scenes at a working wildlife reserve.
“These experiences give young people the chance to try something completely different, meet new people, and picture themselves in environments they might never have considered before. They’re not just fun – they help build confidence, spark new interests and show that inclusive workplaces can come in all shapes and sizes. It’s brilliant to see barriers being broken down in such a supportive, practical way. We’re so proud of what’s being achieved here!”
Joanna added: “Spending time in nature is great for our health and wellbeing, and working alongside the Men’s Shed and Enable has been a fantastic opportunity to share skills and enjoy the Basin’s spectacular wildlife together.”
Image © Ron Mitchell
In the spring and summer, Montrose Basin provides vital breeding grounds for common terns, eider ducks and other birds. However it is perhaps best known for its pink-footed geese, with tens of thousands stopping off at the reserve every autumn during the long flight south from their breeding grounds in Iceland and Greenland.
Montrose Basin Visitor Centre is open 10:30am – 5:00pm daily between February and October, and staff will be running a series of family events, titled “Wild about the Basin” over the summer holidays. From November, the centre is open 10:00am – 4:00pm, Friday – Monday. The reserve is close to the towns of Arbroath, Brechin and Montrose, and less than an hour from Dundee and Aberdeen. For more information, visit the Montrose Basin page on our website.
Header image © Malcolm Brown