RSPB - giving nature a home
Search
Close
Skip to content
Shop | Community
Log in | Sign up
  • About the RSPB
      About us
    • Our history
    • Our mission
    • How the RSPB is run
    • RSPB Media Centre
    • RSPB job vacancies
    • At home & abroad
    • International
    • England
    • Northern Ireland
    • Scotland
    • Wales
    • Get in touch
    • Contact us
    • RSPB offices
    • Connect with us your way
      Our activities
    • Gardening for wildlife

      Gardening for wildlife

      See our ideas to keep you connected to nature during coronavirus

    • Connect with us your way

      Connect with us your way

      From our regular emails to your favourite social media, there’s more than one way to keep in touch with nature

    • Martin Harper Blog

      Martin Harper Blog

  • Our work
      Nature conservation
    • Conservation and sustainability
    • Projects
    • Landscape scale conservation
    • Centre for Conservation Science
    • Satellite tracking birds
    • RSPB News
    • RSPB News
    • 'Our work' blog
    • Our positions and casework
    • Our positions
    • Casework
    • State of Nature report
      Featured news
    • Mindful mornings

      Mindful mornings

      If you can’t get outside, why not bring the outside in by downloading our bird song radio app?

    • How nature can help protect our homes

      How nature can help protect our homes

      Following the floods this winter, watch how one area is using nature as a natural protector.

    • Casework

      Casework

      Catch up with the RSPB’s own nature detectives on the case as they look to save some very special places.

  • Birds & wildlife
      Wildlife guides
    • Identify a bird
    • Bird A-Z
    • Other garden wildlife
    • Guide to birdwatching
    • UK conservation status explained
    • Nature's Calendar
    • Nature's Home magazine
    • About Nature's Home magazine
    • Birds and wildlife articles
    • RSPB Podcasts
    • Nature's Home blog
    • Advice
    • How you can help birds
    • Gardening for wildlife
    • Ask an expert
    • Wildlife and the law
    • How to report crimes against wild birds
    • Bird songs
    • Which bird song is that?
    • Most popular bird guides this month
    • Which bird song is that?

      Which bird song is that?

      Find out how to identify a bird just from the sound of its singing with our bird song identifier playlist.

    • Who to contact if you spot an injured or baby bird

      Who to contact if you spot an injured or baby bird

      Read more advice about what to do if you find a bird that needs help

    • In for a duck

      In for a duck

      It’s nesting season for our waterfowl too but what are the rules you need to follow for ducks, geese or swans?

  • Get involved
      Activities
    • Big Garden Birdwatch
    • Help nature at home
    • RSPB Competitions
    • Dolphinwatch
    • Community & advice
    • Join our local groups
    • How green are you?
    • RSPB Community
    • Get involved blog
    • Volunteering & fundraising
    • Volunteer
    • Fundraise
    • Help nature thrive as a corporate partner
    • Our grant funders
    • Campaigning
    • Climate change effects on nature and wildlife
    • Protecting wildlife sites
    • Campaign with us
    • Five actions to Revive Our World
    • Let nature sing
    • OxCam Arc
    • Your Actions for Nature
    • Top activities to do
    • Help nature at home

      Help nature at home

      Great ideas on how your garden, or even a small backyard or balcony, can become a mini nature reserve

    • How green are you?

      How green are you?

      See some of the ways you can get into green living.

    • Campaigning

      Campaigning

      See our toolkit for ways to campaign with us to protect nature and save wildlife.

  • Reserves & events
      Reserves A-Z Events, dates & inspiration
    • Events
    • COVID-19 information
    • Dates with nature
    • Places to visit blog
    • #ThanksToYou
    • Find a reserve
      Top reserve this month
    • Marshside

      Marshside

      This fantastic wetland site is located north of Southport town centre and has some of the best wildlife in the region.

    • Lytchett Fields

      Lytchett Fields

      The reserve has seen more than thirty species of wading birds.

    • Arne

      Arne

      Heathland home to more than 2565 species.

  • Fun & Learning
      For teachers
    • Supporting resources
    • Wild Challenge
    • School outreach visits
    • Big Schools Birdwatch
    • Sign up for the newsletter
    • School trip ideas
    • For families
    • Big Wild Sleepout
    • Wild Challenge
    • Nature reserves for families
    • For kids
    • Fun factoids for all the family
    • Games and activities
    • Kids stories
    • RSPB kids competitions
    • Latest kids' activities
    • Wild Challenge

      Wild Challenge

      Nature is an adventure waiting to be had. Get out, get busy and get wild!

    • Fun factoids for all the family

      Fun factoids for all the family

      Find out more about the nature and wildlife outside your window.

    • Youth membership

      Youth membership

      As well as a free gift and magazines, you’ll get loads of ideas for activities to try at home.

  • Join & Donate
      Join us
    • Choose a membership
    • Family membership
    • Youth membership
    • Gift membership
    • Discover RSPB Life Fellowships
    • Renew your membership
    • Our 2020 film
    • Donate
    • Our appeals
    • Make a one-off donation
    • Make a regular donation
    • Memorial donations
    • Plant a memorial tree
    • In memoriam booklet download form
    • Thank you
    • Leave a gift in your Will
    • Other people's gifts
    • Legacy donation FAQs
    • Legacy administration
    • Legacy booklet download form
    • Other ways to help
    • Gift Aid
    • Support us when you shop
    • RSPB Images
    • RSPB second-hand binocular scheme
    • Win with the RSPB
    • Payroll Giving
    • Stamp out albatross deaths
  • Login to your account Sign up for an RSPB account
  • Shop
  • Community
  • Home
  • Reserves & events
  • Reserves A-Z
  • Fowlsheugh

Fowlsheugh

Following the latest mainland lockdown and island restrictions many of our facilities are currently closed. We ask that all visitors follow the latest Scottish Government restrictions on travel and group sizes and advice on physical distancing and hygiene. See below for reserve details and our dedicated Covid-19 updates page for the latest safety information (link below). Thank you for your continued support and patience in these challenging times. Stay safe everyone.
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
gallery image
Address
RSPB Fowlsheugh, Crawton, Stonehaven AB39 2TP
Grid ref
NO879808
See our reserves Covid-19 updates page for which sites are open and other important details.

The spectacular cliffs at Fowlsheugh are packed with more than 130,000 breeding seabirds during the spring and summer months. These include guillemots, razorbills and kittiwakes, along with some puffins and fulmars too. If you're lucky, you might also spot grey seals and dolphins in the water here.

Plan your visit

Opening times

Covid-19 update: The hide remains closed at this time.  We are working to open this as soon as it is safe to do so. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Trails 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.

Facilities

  • Car park
  • Guided walks is closed
  • Viewing points are closed
  • Nature trails
  • Educational facilities

Accessibility

  • Full accessibility information (external website)

How to get here

By train

Nearest station is Stonehaven. From Stonehaven train station, take the A92 southbound for 3 miles (4.8 km), then take the turning on the left signed for Crawton. The reserve is at the end of this road.

By bus

Request bus stop at start of road to Crawton (Stonehaven to Johnshaven route) - just over a mile's walk to the reserve.

By bike

This reserve is one mile from Route 1 of the National Cycle Network.

By road

The reserve is 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Stonehaven. On the A92 heading south from Stonehaven, take the turning on the left signed for Crawton. The reserve car park is just before the end of this road; car parking facilities are limited, and unsuitable for coaches or caravans. Please do not park in the passing places.

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.

Get directions from Google Maps
RSPB reserves on Google Earth

Schools booking information

Any enquiries should be made to the East Scotland Regional Office. Tel: 01224 624824, email: esro@rspb.org.uk

What will the weather be like?

13 degrees, Cloudy

Contact Fowlsheugh

  • RSPB, Loch of Strathbeg, Starnafin, Crimond, Fraserburgh. Aberdeenshire. AB43 8QN
  • strathbeg@rspb.org.uk
  • 01346 532017

What will you see?

Our star species

    Flying adult Fulmar illustration

    Fulmar

    Watch for their trademark stiff-winged flight around the cliffs.

    Guillemot illustration

    Guillemot

    Although ungainly above water, underwater they become agile and manoeuvrable.

    kittiwake adult

    Kittiwake

    Visit Fowlsheugh in spring and early summer and your ears will be filled with their unmistakable calls.

    Puffin, adult in summer plumage

    Puffin

    Enjoy the comical antics of puffins in spring and early summer from the viewing points on the cliffs.

    Razorbill, summer plumage

    Razorbill

    Razorbills spend most of their lives at sea in the Atlantic, only coming to land to breed between March and July.

Nature spectacles

The largest mainland seabird colony on the east coast of Scotland, this impressive seabird colony contains populations of some of Scotland’s most iconic and favourite birds including guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and a small numbers of puffins.  Offshore, seals, dolphins and other cetaceans contribute to the unique and stunning nature of Fowlsheugh.

Seasonal highlights

  • Spring
  • Summer
  • Autumn
  • Winter

Watch out for the returning seabirds as they find their nests on the ledges. Pick out a puffin near their clifftop burrows. Look out to sea for gannets and skuas. Spot a passing dolphin or even a minke whale!

Enjoy the sights and smells of the spectacular seabird city. Look for the small farmland birds, such as linnets and meadow pipits, on the clifftop. Listen to the thrilling song of the skylarks. Admire the colourful summer flowers.

Check the water off-shore for red-throated divers and sea ducks like scoters and eiders.

Spot the grey seals hauled out on Craiglethy Island. Look for the new seal pups on the beach at Trelung Ness. Watch out for the fulmars returning to the cliffs in February.

About Fowlsheugh

Habitat

A colourful coastal cliff top walk over grassland to view thousands of seabirds with a stunning backdrop of 30-metre sea cliffs should not be missed. Although the seabird experience is limited to May to early August, Fowlsheugh provides a great walk for all months of the year. A small shelter at the end of the trail overlooks the breeding ledges. The cliffs, mostly basalt and conglomerates of Old Red Sandstone, form a rock face with innumerable holes and ledges, providing ideal sites for cliff nesting seabirds.

Conservation

  • Counting seabirds - We aim to maintain the whole seabird colony at numbers around 123,000 individuals, including increased numbers of guillemots, razorbills, fulmars and kittiwakes. We are also working to boost the herring gull population and to maintain small numbers of puffins and shags.
  • Colony care - We are working to minimise disturbance to the colony during the breeding season, with cliff-top signposting for visitors and an agreed protocol for boats at the cliff face. We will also enhance visitor safety by maintaining steps and footpaths, installing trail markers, rerouting any hazardous sections of the cliff edge path, and providing clear warning signs.

Site information

Running for around three kilometres along the coast, Fowlsheugh is part of a wider SPA designated for its number of seabirds. It lies within two SSSIs – the main one, Fowlsheugh SSSI, is a 1.8km length of sheer 30 to 60-metre cliffs, with a narrow strip of clifftop grasslands. The second, a section of the cliff at the southern end, is included within Crawton Bay SSSI.

The site has been owned and managed as a reserve by The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) since 1976.

Latest forum posts

READ OUR FORUM

Latest blog posts

read our blog

Activities and events

Leisure activities

Aberdeenshire Coastal Trail long-distance path runs inland of the reserve. Other ad hoc activities include scuba diving at Trollochy and Spurnell’s Cove.

Share this

  • Facebook Facebook Created with Sketch.
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

You might also be interested in

Loch of Strathbeg RSPB reserve, views of the beach

Loch of Strathbeg

As Britain's largest dune loch, Strathbeg is a vital wintering and staging post for pink-footed geese.
RSPB Giving Nature a Home Campaign

Adopt a puffin

Sadly, if current declines continue, the UK could lose up to eight million puffins over the next 50 years.
RSPB Giving Nature a Home Campaign

Join us - legacy

Become an RSPB member by signing up here.

We spend 90% of net income on conservation, public education and advocacy

Quick links

  • Contact us
  • Online Community
  • Vacancies
  • Media centre

Information for

  • Teachers
  • Policy makers
  • Farmers & landowners
  • Scientists

Our work in

  • England
  • Scotland
  • Wales
  • Northern Ireland
  • International

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

Partnering with

BirdLife_logo

The RSPB is a member of BirdLife International. Find out more about the partnership

Fundraising Regulator logo OSCR logo

© The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 207076, Scotland no. SC037654

  • Terms & conditions
  • Cookie policy
  • Privacy policy
  • Charter and statutes
  • About our site
  • Modern Slavery Act

Cookie Preferences

Accepting all non-essential cookies helps us to personalise your experience

Edit settings
Accept all

Essential cookies are required

These cookies are required for basic web functions

Enable analytics cookies

Allow us to collect anonymised performance data

Enable marketing cookies

Allow us to personalise your experience

Save settings
Read our cookie policy