Loch Fleet

Loch Fleet is a shallow sea loch on Scotland’s east coast, between Golspie and Dornoch. The River Fleet flows into it from hills near Lairg, forming a wide tidal basin with sand-flats, mud-flats, saltmarsh and dunes. The reserve covers 1,058 hectares and includes pine woods such as Balbair Wood and Ferry Wood. A narrow channel links the loch to the Dornoch Firth, separating Coul Links from Ferry Links. Beneath the dunes lies old Red Sandstone, overlain by shingle ridges that once formed a tidal delta reaching as far as Rogart. The loch is nationally important for birds, with over 100 species recorded. Winter brings bar-tailed godwit, greylag goose, wigeon, curlew, dunlin and teal, while Arctic terns, oystercatchers and ringed plovers nest in spring. Pinewoods shelter crossbills, siskin and buzzards, and osprey can be seen fishing. Seals are common along the Skelbo road, and otters, pipistrelles and roe deer live in the woods. Rare plants such as one-flowered wintergreen and twinflower grow in Balblair Wood, and a humpback whale stranded here in 2023. Visitors walk the shingle ridges and dunes, watching wading birds on the mudflats. The pinewood paths offer glimpses of woodpeckers and raptors overhead. Skelbo Castle ruins stand on the south shore, and the Mound causeway carries the A9 across the former tidal inlet. The Battle of Littleferry took place nearby in 1746, when Sutherland militia overwhelmed the Earl of Cromarty’s men. The reserve’s sluices still let salmon and sea-trout reach their spawning grounds upstream.