Coronavirus update: Our Montrose Basin Visitor Centre remains closed and all events are still suspended until further notice. Please note that the car park and hides also remain closed during this time. However, our visitor centre team are now working their way through the government reopening guidance to implement increased hygiene, social distancing and new admission measures.
We look forward to welcoming our visitors back when we are ready to reopen and hope you will join us on our reopening journey by following us on Facebook and Twitter.
Please check back on this page for further updates.
Montrose Basin is an enclosed estuary of the river South Esk covering 750 hectares, home to over 80,000 migratory birds – including pink-footed geese, Arctic terns, knots and sedge warblers. Our four-star visitor centre offers a great day out for all the family in Angus.
Address: Montrose Basin, Rossie Braes, Angus DD10 9TA
Why visit?
Highlights include:
- Telescopes and binoculars set up and ready to use
- Interactive toys and games – including microscopes and puzzles
- Regular wildlife events – guided walks, children’s activities
- Formal and informal education programmes for school groups run all year round
- Fairtrade tea and coffee available – relax with panoramic views across the Basin
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Range of wildlife gifts available from our gift shop
Best time to visit?
- Easter to Oct for activities
- Apr to Aug for sand martins
- Oct to Feb for wintering geese
- Anytime for wildfowl and waders
Visit for:
- birdwatching
- coasts
- geology
- scenery
- mammals
Other information
This tidal basin is an important roosting and feeding area for a variety of passage migrants, and is internationally important for breeding eiders and wintering waders and wildfowl, attracting up to 80,000 pink-footed geese in winter.
Events
Find out what events are taking place at Montrose Basin in the coming months by viewing our events leaflet.
You can book on to these events by clicking the button below.
Discover the Basin with one of our self-guided audio tours
If you would like to learn more about the Basin, our audio tours are a great place to start. Choose from four tours available through izi.TRAVEL. These tours can be accessed online or through the izi.TRAVEL mobile app available for iPhone and Android.
One of our Teacher Naturalists at Montrose Basin is also a dog owner and dog-walker. Read on for advice from Kim on how to be a responsible dog walker at these particularly difficult times, but also at any time of year – with wildlife in mind! There hasn’t been one aspect of life or one person that hasn’t seen drastic change in the last month. During this time, one of the measures our government has taken is limiting the general…
In this time of drastic change, there’s some comfort to be found in the constant of nature. The worldwide event we’re currently all experiencing has affected every facet of life, but wildlife is continuing on as normal. Travel bans mean nothing to our spring migrants, and social distancing measures certainly don’t exist in the everyday lives of Scottish wildlife (especially now that breeding season has arrived). Kingfishers are no exception. At this time of year, visitors and staff at the…
The first day of spring, this year, will fall on 20th March, yet all over Montrose Basin Wildlife Reserve there are tantalising signs that a new season has already started to arrive. In the wooded and hedgerow banked areas around the Lurgies, Tayock and Mains of Dun, carpets of snow drops have been brightening visitor’s walks for several weeks. Enthusiastic daffodil heads are already starting to push their way through the warming ground, with a canary yellow parade ushering cars…
The past year has flown by and it’s now my final month working at the Montrose Basin Visitor Centre. I started in March 2019, and I can’t believe how quickly the last year has passed. Before I started this job, I barely knew anything about birds and wildlife. I could have told you what a few very common birds were, but that was about as far as my knowledge went. I remember when I attended the interview for the position,…
Even though winter is still very much happening (I type this as Storm Ciara approaches), the Montrose Basin Visitor Centre’s ‘winter hours’ are coming to an end – today! From February 10th onwards, the centre will go back to being open daily, 10:30am-5pm. We’re all very excited to see what this new season will bring. There are even a couple of extra reasons to celebrate this year: 2020 is VisitScotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters (which means we’ll have even more…
At the beginning of this year, the Montrose Basin Visitor Centre took part in the Tesco Bags of Help scheme. Shoppers were able to vote for projects by local charities, and all entrants won at least £1000 funding. We were all excited enough to think that we would soon be given £1000 to put towards improving our wildlife centre, but we were beyond thrilled to see how many votes Montrose Basin was receiving each time one of us visited Tesco.…
It’s likely that most people reading this blog have seen plenty of grey herons in their lifetime. These are large, impressive, and somewhat prehistoric-looking birds that are usually seen by any sort of body of water, be it ponds, lochs, estuaries, rivers, or even the sea. With the Montrose Basin being a huge intertidal estuary, you would expect there to be lots of grey herons making use of it – and you’d be right! In October’s Wetland Bird Survey, reserve…
When you think of winter wildlife, one of the first things that usually comes to mind is the robin, but why do robins have such a strong association with winter? © Richard Bowler This could partly be because there is an increase in robin numbers during the winter months, with migrants from Scandinavia, Russia and Europe joining our resident robins when the winters become too cold and food scarce back home. On the other hand, native…