Montrose Basin is a nearly circular tidal basin which makes up part of the estuary of the

River South Esk :''Note: the southern headwater of the River Esk in Lothian is also known as the South Esk.'' The South Esk ( gd, Easg Dheas) is a river in Angus, Scotland. It rises in the Grampian Mountains at Loch Esk in Glen Doll and flows through Glen Clo ...

and which sits just inland of the town of Montrose in

Angus Angus may refer to: Media * ''Angus'' (film), a 1995 film * ''Angus Og'' (comics), in the ''Daily Record'' Places Australia * Angus, New South Wales Canada * Angus, Ontario, a community in Essa, Ontario * East Angus, Quebec Scotland * An ...

on the east coast of Scotland. The basin is protected by a number of designations, it is managed by the

Scottish Wildlife Trust The Scottish Wildlife Trust is a Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, registered charity dedicated to conserving the Natural history of Scotland, wildlife and natural environment of Scotland. Description The Scottish Wildlife Trust has well ...

as a Wildlife Reserve, as well as being designated as a Local Nature Reserve,

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

, a

Special Protection Area A Special Protection Area (SPA) is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union (EU) have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and cert ...

and a

Ramsar Site A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) **

saltmarsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

reedbed A reedbed or reed bed is a natural habitat found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions and estuaries. Reedbeds are part of a succession from young reeds colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. As ...

and

fen A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetlands along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as mires. T ...

and its surroundings of arable farmland and pasture. The section of the basin at Maryton is an important site for the study of the sea level fluctuations following the end of the last glaciation. The SPA includes the small,

eutrophic Eutrophication is the process by which an entire body of water, or parts of it, becomes progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus. It has also been defined as "nutrient-induced increase in phytoplank ...

freshwater loch called Dun's Dish. The basin contains the largest area of saltmarsh in Angus.

Wildlife

The extensive mudflats are home to large populations of invertebrates, especially

annelid The annelids (Annelida , from Latin ', "little ring"), also known as the segmented worms, are a large phylum, with over 22,000 extant species including ragworms, earthworms, and leeches. The species exist in and have adapted to various ecol ...

worms, the snail ''

Hydrobia ''Hydrobia'' is a genus of very small brackish water snails with a gill and an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusks in the family Hydrobiidae.Gofas, S. (2011). Hydrobia Hartmann, 1821. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at ht ...

'' and the

amphipod Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far descr ...

'' Corophium''. There are also beds of mussels ''

Mytilus edulis The blue mussel (''Mytilus edulis''), also known as the common mussel, is a medium-sized edible marine (ocean), marine bivalve mollusc in the family (biology), family Mytilidae, the mussels. Blue mussels are subject to commercial use and intensiv ...

''. The flora includes beds consisting of three species of

eel grass Eelgrass is a common name for several plants and may refer to: * ''Zostera'', marine eelgrass * ''Vallisneria ''Vallisneria'' (named in honor of Antonio Vallisneri) is a genus of freshwater aquatic plant, commonly called eelgrass, tape grass o ...

, ''

Zostera ''Zostera'' is a small genus of widely distributed seagrasses, commonly called marine eelgrass, or simply seagrass or eelgrass, and also known as seaweed by some fishermen and recreational boaters including yachtsmen. The genus ''Zostera'' co ...

'', and algae. The mudflats support numbers of waders and wildfowl including

Eurasian oystercatcher The Eurasian oystercatcher (''Haematopus ostralegus'') also known as the common pied oystercatcher, or palaearctic oystercatcher, or (in Europe) just oystercatcher, is a wader in the oystercatcher bird family Haematopodidae. It is the most widesp ...

common redshank The common redshank or simply redshank (''Tringa totanus'') is a Eurasian wader in the large family Scolopacidae. Taxonomy The common redshank was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ...

red knot The red knot or just knot (''Calidris canutus'') is a medium-sized shorebird which breeds in tundra and the Arctic Cordillera in the far north of Canada, Europe, and Russia. It is a large member of the ''Calidris'' sandpipers, second only to the ...

mute swan The mute swan (''Cygnus olor'') is a species of swan and a member of the waterfowl family Anatidae. It is native to much of Eurosiberia, and (as a rare winter visitor) the far north of Africa. It is an introduced species in North America, home ...

Eurasian wigeon The Eurasian wigeon or European wigeon (''Mareca penelope''), also known as the widgeon or the wigeon, is one of three species of wigeon in the dabbling duck genus ''Mareca''. It is common and widespread within its Palearctic range. Taxonomy Th ...

and

common eider The common eider (pronounced ) (''Somateria mollissima''), also called St. Cuthbert's duck or Cuddy's duck, is a large ( in body length) sea-duck that is distributed over the northern coasts of Europe, North America and eastern Siberia. It breed ...

. Large flocks of

pink-footed goose The pink-footed goose (''Anser brachyrhynchus'') is a goose which breeds in eastern Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard. It is migratory, wintering in northwest Europe, especially Ireland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and western Denmark. The nam ...

and

greylag goose The greylag goose or graylag goose (''Anser anser'') is a species of large goose in the waterfowl family Anatidae and the type species of the genus ''Anser''. It has mottled and barred grey and white plumage and an orange beak and pink legs. A ...

use the basin to roost in and feed in the surrounding farmland. As well as wintering eiders the basin supports a large breeding population. In all 213 species of bird have been recorded on the basin, most being winter visitors or passage migrants and just over 50 species are thought to breed. A visitor centre was opened on the south side of the basin at Rossie Braes by the Scottish Wildlife Trust in 1995.

History

The

Montrose Basin Heritage Society Montrose may refer to: Places Scotland * Montrose, Angus (the original after which all others ultimately named or derived) ** Montrose Academy, the secondary school in Montrose Australia * Montrose, Queensland (Southern Downs Region), a locality ...

was formed in 1999 to bring together information about the basin, including its history and archaeology. The oldest evidence for humans in the area dating back as far as over 3,000 year B.C.E., this being the linear monument, known as the cursus, which runs from Powis to Old Montrose. The Basin has been exploited for its seafood, especially the

Atlantic salmon The Atlantic salmon (''Salmo salar'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is the third largest of the Salmonidae, behind Siberian taimen and Pacific Chinook salmon, growing up to a meter in length. Atlantic salmon are ...

but commercial fisheries for this species ended in 2018; and

mussel Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve molluscs, from saltwater and Freshwater bivalve, freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other ...

cultivation gave it the largest mussel beds in the country during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Montrose Basin was hit by a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

in 6100 BC, generated by the massive underwater

Storegga Slide The three Storegga Slides ( no, Storeggaraset) are amongst the largest known submarine landslides. They occurred at the edge of Norway's continental shelf in the Norwegian Sea, approximately 6225–6170 BCE. The collapse involved an estimated ...

, in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. It was high when it hit the basin, with the waters travelling inland as far as

Forfar Forfar ( sco, Farfar, gd, Baile Fharfair) is the county town of Angus, Scotland and the administrative centre for Angus Council, with a new multi-million pound office complex located on the outskirts of the town. As of 2021, the town has a p ...

References

External links

Reserve's websiteMontrose Basin Live WebcamVisitor Centre informationDEFRA report
* {{coord, 56.70818, N, 2.50305, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(NO693575), display=title Estuaries of Scotland Special Protection Areas in Scotland Ramsar sites in Scotland Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Angus and Dundee Nature centres in Scotland Nature reserves in Scotland Protected areas of Angus, Scotland Landforms of Angus, Scotland Lagoons of the United Kingdom

Wildlife

History

See also

References

External links