Fowlsheugh

Fowlsheugh is a coastal nature reserve in Kincardineshire, northeast Scotland. Its 70-metre-high cliffs rise from the North Sea, forming sheer faces of Old Red Sandstone streaked with green volcanic veins. The clifftops are topped by sandy loam soil riddled with rabbit warrens, shared in season with puffins. Below, the sea cuts deep caves into the rock, including the hundred-metre-long ‘Gallery’ cave. Offshore lie skerries such as Craiglethy and Gull Craig, low rocky islands used by seabirds and seals. The reserve sits five kilometres south of Stonehaven and seven kilometres north of Catterline. The site is internationally recognised for its seabird colonies, which number over 170,000 at the spring peak. It holds the second-largest seabird colony in Britain and qualifies as a protected area of international importance. Kittiwakes alone once numbered 34,870 breeding pairs in 1992, making up 1.1 per cent of all North Atlantic kittiwakes. Guillemots reached 40,140 pairs, representing 1.8 per cent of the East Atlantic population. The cliffs also host puffins, razorbills, fulmars and herring gulls, while peregrine falcons sometimes hunt along the edges. Visitors follow a public clifftop trail where the wind can reach eighty kilometres per hour. Overhangs and stacks reveal the layered sandstone and conglomerate, while seabirds wheel above and below. On Craiglethy Skerry seals haul out on summer afternoons. Below the cliffs, sea caves echo with the calls of thousands of birds. Offshore, dolphins and seals move through waters rich in salmon and trout, and colourful seaweeds fringe the shore.