About RSPB Islay – Loch Gruinart:
Get closer to Islay’s wildlife at one of the RSPB’s two nature reserves on the island.
Loch Gruinart is home to one of the UK’s best wildlife spectacles, every winter tens of thousands of geese from Greenland flock to the green fields of Loch Gruinart. As they depart north in the spring waders and corncrakes return to breed.
A walk along the trails will immerse you in the sights and sounds of Islay; from the white cotton-grass on the moor and the carpets of bluebells in the woods to the melodic skylark or “pee-wit” cry of the lapwings in the summer. Be sure to make some time to simply sit and let the world go by. Your patience may be rewarded with the sight of a shy deer or a hen harrier drifting by.
Seek out the elusive corncrake in the summer and watch the lapwing chicks grow through the year before the crowds of barnacle geese descend.
Loch Gruinart is a working farm and we ask walkers to adhere to the Scottish Outdoor Access code by keeping dogs under close control (preferably on a lead) and keep to paths.