Mobile Mixing
Shingle Islands
Size: 77.9ha Conservation rating: SAC, SSSI
Core profile
The islands in the River Tay and Tummel between Dunkeld and Pitlochry are ever changing. The water around them can pluck gravel away or add it, depending on the state of river flow. The four main islands within this site of European importance include everything from bare shingle to alder woodland.
What’s special about them?
The mix of conditions on the Shingle Islands means that many kinds of plants and small creatures – especially insects and spiders - can live here in a small area. Elsewhere, you might expect to find some of these in places as different from each other as mountain cliffs, bog grassland, pebble beach and woodland.
In summer, ringed plovers and common terns breed on open areas. The wet woodland here is of the alluvial forest type now rare in Europe, rich in alder and ash.
What was up?
- Need for careful long-term planning and monitoring
- Invasion by sycamore
- Dense thickets of Japanese knotweed displacing native trees
- Multiple ownership creates need for holistic approach to management
- Lack of public awareness of importance of Shingle Islands
What’s being done?
- Removal of exotic broadleaved trees (47 ha)
- Eradication of Japanese knotweed (1 ha)
- Monitoring condition of site to assist management planning
- Stakeholder/public open day
What’s next?
Core Connections
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