Carlingnose
Wildlife Reserve
is a strip of semi-natural coastal habitat at the western end of the
Firth of Forth.
Habitats
include herb-rich
calcareous grassland,
neutral grassland, scrub, cliffs, rocky shoreline and sandy beach.
It
was mainly for its grassland that
it was
designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1988. The SWT
acquired the reserve in 1999.
Harebell
Access
to the Reserve
Just north of North Queensferry Railway Station, turn into Carlingnose
Point, then first left into Carlingnose Way. After the second bend
there is a very small car park.
If
it is full, then park on the
road, but please
be considerate to local residents and do not block any driveways.
Alternatively,
park in Battery Road
Car Park and
follow the Fife Coastal Path signs to the reserve.
Access
around the reserve is mainly
by the Fife
Coastal Path and a
couple of other obvious paths. Please be careful near the steep coastal
slopes and old quarry cliffs.
PRINT
OUT a copy of this Web page
and take it
with you when you visit the reserve.
For such a
relatively small site, Carlingnose has a high
degree of
habitat and plant diversity (over 170 species recorded). One notable
species to look for is Dropwort, a rarity in Scotland, being more
commonly associated with the grasslands of southern England.
Several locally
scarce species occur, such as Field
Gentian
(over 400 individual plants), Bloody Cranesbill, and Lesser Meadow-Rue.
Both Heather and Harebell, listed as priority species in Fife's
Biodiversity Action Plan, occur on the site, along with Bell Heather,
Burnet Saxifrage and Hairy Rockcress.
On the cliffs left
by past quarrying, Fulmars have
begun to
breed, and can be seen soaring and wheeling about the cliffs during the
summer.
The dense scrub of
hawthorn and gorse provide cover and
nesting sites for many species of warblers and finches.
During the winter,
Carlingnose is a good viewpoint to
watch
the bird life of the Forth Estuary, with divers, grebes and sea ducks
present offshore.
Historical
Perspective
The name
Carlingnose is possibly derived from its
appearance
to mariners sailing up the Firth of Forth, to whom it looked like an
old witch (Carlin is Norse for old woman).
Because of its
domination of the point where the Forth
narrows, it has probably been fortified since early times. For most of
the time Carlingnose has been used as farmland, but quarrying started
in the early 1800s. The hard dolerite rock was used in the building of
the bases for the Forth Bridge. Quarrying ceased during the First World
War, but was re-started after the war for a short time.
Much of the land
was sold to the War Department in 1898
when
barracks and a gunsite were constructed. Two cannon were put in place
for coastal defence, but replaced by anti-aircraft guns for the Second
World War.
The barracks ceased
to be used by 1957 and the War
Department
sold the land on. From the sixties to the nineties Carlingnose has been
developed for house building, planning permission having been given
before it was designated a SSSI.
Management
Because Carlingnose
has only recently been acquired,
very
little conservation management has so far taken place.
The site's first
management plan has been written for
the
period 2000-2005, and will concentrate on managing the remaining areas
of grassland.
The site has
suffered in the past from a lack of
management,
so the natural process of succession has meant that the grassland areas
are being invaded by scrub, thereby shading out the rare plant species
and their habitat.
The main aim of
the management of the site will be to
reverse
this process. Although scrub itself is a valuable habitat, plenty will
still remain on other parts of the site.
Why not
visit
another of our reserves?
Choose from the
drop-down list below
and click on your choice.
