Culbin Sands

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Address
RSPB Culbin Sands, Maggot Rd, Nairn IV12 5BX
Grid ref
NH900576

Stretching along part of the Moray and Nairn Coast Special Protection Area (SPA), remote and windswept Culbin Sands is a unique reserve where you can get away from it all. At low tide, bar-tailed godwits, oystercatchers and knots feed along the shoreline, while high tide brings sea ducks close to the sand dunes.

Plan your visit

Opening times

Open at all times.

Entrance charges

Free entrance to RSPB members
Yes
Adults
Free, but donations are very welcome
Children
Free, but donations are very welcome
Car park cost

Free

Facilities

  • No visitor centre
  • Car park
  • Toilets off-site
  • Accessible toilets off-site
  • No Refreshments
  • Picnic area
  • Shop off-site

Accessibility

How to get here

By train

Nairn, 1.5 miles (2.4 km). Exit train station and follow Cawdor Road south to Nairn High Street (High Street is one way). Follow High Street down to junction with A96, cross over onto Harbour St, then follow this road to the harbour. Turn right across the footbridge and follow road through the caravan site to the Highland Council car park.

By bus

St. Ninians road - turn right and continue till junction with Harbour Street, turn left down Harbour Street. Follow to the harbour, turn right across the footbridge and follow the road through the caravan park to the Highland Council car park at the far end.

 

By road

1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of Nairn. Accessed from Highland Council East Beach car park. After passing through Nairn on the A96 from Inverness, go over the river, take the first left towards the caravan park on Maggot Road. At the road end, turn right and follow the road through the caravan park. The car park is at the end of this road.

 

Sat nav POI file: If you have a satellite navigation system that can accept POI files, please see our POI page for a download link and instructions.

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RSPB reserves on Google Earth

What will the weather be like?

15 degrees, Cloudy

Contact Culbin Sands

What will you see?

Our star species

Nature spectacles

Culbin Sands has extensive mussel beds, often attracting large numbers of sea duck in the winter – including common scoter, long-tailed duck and smaller numbers of velvet scoter. Sometimes the sea duck are visible from the Kingsteps area – high tide is best as it brings the birds closer to the shore making them easier to view.

Seasonal highlights

A time of change on Culbin Sands as birds stop off in the shelter of the firth to feed before continuing on their migration. Listen for the grating call of sandwich terns on their way to their breeding grounds and look for them fishing just off the beach. Patience may reward visitors with glimpses of dolphins, common seals and grey seals in the firth.

Pink sea thrift, yellow kidney vetch and the pretty white eyebright are in flower. Butterflies bask in sunny areas, look carefully for the tiny small blue butterfly particularly around the kidney vetch in June. Eider ducks can sometimes be seen resting on the sand bar, skylarks sing above the sand dunes and common lizards scuttle between the marram grass stalks.

Geese, including a small flock of brent geese, start to arrive keep a look out for the distinctive V-shaped flock and 'wink wink' call of pink footed geese flying overhead. Knot, oystercatcher and dunlin can be seen feeding on the foreshore.

The shelter of the firth provides ideal conditions for wintering seaducks. Rafts of common scoter, long tailed duck and eiders can sometimes be seen offshore; lucky visitors may pick out a velvet scoter in the mixed flocks.

About Culbin Sands

Habitat

Shaped by the tide and wind Culbin Sands is an ever changing dynamic system. Designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special Protection Area (SPA), Ramsar site and Special Area of Conservation (SAC), the unique geomorphology of Culbin Sands is internationally important.

Once part of one of the largest sand dune systems in Britain, the remaining sand dunes along with the saltmarsh, mudflats and shingle make up a complex and dynamic system shifting with the wind and tides. Nairn Bar, part of the Culbin Bar SAC, is one of the finest examples of a storm shingle ridge in Europe can be seen from the sandy East Beach part of the reserve.

Longshore drift and shingle thrown up by big storms in the Moray Firth build the sand and shingle bars whilst fragile saltmarsh is protected in the shelter on the landward side of the bars, creating a delicate mosaic of vegetation which can be easily damaged by the trampling of feet, hooves, bikes and illegal vehicle access.

Conservation

Second World War Anti-Glider Poles

On first glance the Second World War glider poles look like an old forest plantation or telegraph poles sticking up from the saltmarsh and dunes. The poles were installed from 1940 in response to the perceived threat of enemy glider planes landing on the long sandy beach. Stretching along 9km of coast, the anti-glider poles are one of only 13 surviving anti-landing obstacles in the UK and the largest Scheduled Monument on an RSPB reserve.

Our volunteers are completing a baseline condition assessment of the anti-glider poles to assist Historic Scotland with care and monitoring of the SM.

Protecting Culbin Sands' habitats

The dynamic and constant shifting of the dunes and the open nature of the habitat is what makes Culbin Sands a unique place. Sunny areas and moving dunes create open habitats that support rare species including dingy skipper, small blue butterfly and a variety of specialist dune plants and fungi. To protect these open habitats woody scrub and trees are removed from the dunes and shingle bars which would otherwise prevent the movement of the dunes and shade out the sunny open habitats which many of the specialist plants and invertebrates rely on.

Site information

This nature reserve is important for wildlife. RSPB Scotland welcomes responsible access, in line with the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. 

RSPB Culbin Sands reserve is part of a suite of reserves run by the Central Highland Reserves team, which also includes Loch Ruthven, Nigg Bay and Udale Bay on the Moray Firth

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