Welcome to Loch of the Lowes Visitor Centre and Wildlife Reserve near Dunkeld. Our reserve covers 130 hectares including woodland, freshwater loch and the visitor centre and hides.
All year round the reserve boasts sightings of red squirrels, mallards, swans, great-crested grebes, fallow deer and great-spotted woodpeckers.
In autumn and winter, the reserve is home to Canada and greylag geese, as well as wigeon, tufted, golden eye and mallard ducks, grey heron and much more.
During the spring and summer months the osprey return to their nest just 150m away from the hides. The loch also hosts breeding swallows and goosander, as well as garden birds in the woodland and 3 species of bat.
Our four-star visitor centre offers a great day out for all the family in Perthshire.
Opening times
1st Nov – 28th Feb: Open Friday – Sunday 10:30-16:00.
1st Mar – 31st Oct: Open 7 days, 10:30-17:00.
The visitor centre no longer has a timeslot system. We will now be accepting on-the-door admissions as usual. We are working on a new and improved optional online booking system for the new year.
Any questions? If you have a question about planning your visit, please scroll down or email lochofthelowes@scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk
Exclusive hide hire: Please click the drop down below for tickets and more information
Enjoy an exclusive opportunity to see wildlife at Loch of the Lowes. Bookings last for up to three hours (depending on sunset time) and are available to one household (up to four people) for £30.
Information we collect from visitors to the Trust, via our booking systems, will also be used to support the NHS Scotland’s Test and Protect service and we will disclose relevant personal information to the service if requested up to 21 days following your visit. For more details, please click here.
Any questions? If you have a question about your hide hire or would like to enquire about hiring it on a different day, please email lochofthelowes@scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk
Why visit?
The Loch of the Lowes Visitor Centre offers spectacular views across the reserve from the hides. Telescopes and binoculars will be available for you to see the wildlife up close.
We serve hot drinks, snacks and we have a wildlife-themed gift shop with a variety of products for all ages.
A range of children’s activities are always available in the children’s hide.
Our viewing window allows you to get up close to garden birds, red squirrels and great-spotted woodpeckers.
Best time to visit?
- Apr – Aug for ospreys
- Apr – Sept for beavers
- All year round for red squirrels
- All year round for wildfowl
- All year round for bird feeders & deer
Visit for:
- birdwatching
- woodlands
- wildflowers
- scenery
- mammals
Other information
We’re Good to Go
“We’re Good To Go” is the official UK mark to signal that a tourism and hospitality business has worked hard to follow government and industry COVID-19 guidelines and has a process in place to maintain cleanliness and aid social distancing.
Please make sure you’re following the latest Scottish Government COVID-19 guidelines before planning your visit. This includes the recommendation to ‘Flow Before You Go‘ – please consider taking a lateral flow test before visiting.
Whether you live in Scotland or you’re just visiting, please download the ‘Check In Scotland’ app from Google Play or the Apple app store before you visit. This will speed up our Test and Protect procedure.
Woodland path
The Fungarth path can be accessed from our car park and leads to the historic town of Dunkeld. Please note that this walk is not circular.
Please note the woodland trail is not currently accessible when the Visitor Centre is closed.
Events
Find out what events are taking place at Loch of the Lowes in the coming months by checking out our Events page
Join today and help support our conservation work, with free access to all our visitor centres and around 120 reserves. Your support will protect Scotland’s Wildlife for the Future. Join in the centre, and you’ll receive a free gift!
Happy New Year! Last year at this time, we were under national lockdown restrictions and Loch of the Lowes was closed, so the fact we’re starting 2022 open and welcoming visitors is a much better position. Long may the progress continue! January 8th, Loch of the Lowes cloaked in freezing mist. Photo by Grant Robertson 2022 For both the Visitor Centre and Ranger teams at Lowes, last year was a difficult one to navigate due…
As my third season working as a Visitor Centre Assistant at Loch of the Lowes draws to an end, I have been thinking about all the fantastic experiences I have had here. Loch of the Lowes – Amy Bastow Starting in 2019, I enjoyed a busy summer with visitors arriving from all over the world, excited to see our ospreys. That year our resident male LM12 and resident female LF15 successfully fledged two chicks. PT4,…
What a difference a day makes! On Friday, 19th Nov, the temperature at Lowes was around 15C degrees, with thick drifting mist obscuring everything beyond a hundred or so feet from the bank. Trying to focus the telescopes in the Top Hide became laughable because everything appeared mysteriously veiled and the air hummed with ‘invisible’ geese and whistling wigeon. Luckily, the mist burned off after a few hours. On Saturday, we came in to a sparkling, sunny day without a…
Fallow deer (Dama dama) are a medium sized deer who grow up to 1.8m in length. They were introduced into the UK in the 11th century by the Normans. Originally brought over from the Mediterranean, this elegant species are now wide spread across England, Wales and some parts of Scotland. Fallow deer are fairly variable in appearance. Whilst most are a pale gingery-brown with white spots, some fallow deer can be very dark with few or no spots, whereas…
With ospreys off on migration from Loch of the Lowes, we thought it would be a good time to share some of the data we collected during our Osprey Watch this year. Get ready for some graphs! Our male (LM12) and female (NC0) ospreys returned on the 21 and 23 March respectively, and the monitoring began with the Species Protection Officers (SPOs) on 5 April. Our Osprey Watch volunteers and SPOs collect all sorts of data across the eight weeks…
Just like that, our osprey season has ended. Just like many things which have happened over the past two years, our osprey season has not followed its usual patterns. Osprey landing on nest – Kevin Taylor Not only did NC0 stay longer than one of the juveniles, but it appears that LM12, the male osprey, may have left before the second juvenile. Last seen on the nest the evening of the 25th August, it is believed…
Our resident female NC0 has left the reserve, bringing an end to her second successful breeding season at Loch of the Lowes. The last sighting of the season of NC0 at Loch of the Lowes The last sighting of NC0 on the webcam was on Sunday 22 August, just after 8am. LM12 brought a fish to the nest and within a few seconds she arrived to take it from him. She then flew off to enjoy…
Loch of the Lowes has been an eventful place for the last few weeks. The sky has been busy with soaring ospreys and fishing activity has frequently disturbed the still waters of the loch. This is a special time of year, as we have been lucky to witness our two juveniles fledge the nest and join their parents in flight, learning from and practicing their adult behaviours. But this period is also rather short and sweet. Suddenly the busy nest…