On Wednesday myself, Vicky, Iain, Andrew and Lesley headed down to Fowlsheugh to start work on bridge repair; damage caused by heavy rains in December. The heavy rains caused erosion to the bank which resulted in the collapse of the bridge. The day was spent carefully dismantling the damaged bridge piece by piece; we managed to get all disassembling finished.
The purpose of dismantling the bridge is to remove the old one (which was in place) and install a longer bridge which will be significantly long enough to cover the extended section of the stream. We also aim to make the bank more secure from future erosion.
The reserve is still closed; work will be on going for a couple of weeks and will be open as soon as possible.
Apologies for inconvenience caused.
Hello I am guessing the repair work has been complete now? The main Fowlsheugh page on the site is showing it's still closed so I just wanted to double check.
Also, has anyone seen any puffins yet or will it be a few weeks yet?
Thanks
Hi Lyle,
I'm afraid Fowlsheugh is still closed. Laying the foundations for the new bridge has been more complicated than we expected and the recent terrible weather and high wind has meant we've just not been able to work out on the cliffs. We will post on the main site and on the blog as soon as the reserve is open.
There may be the occasional Puffin checking out the cliffs but the ain numbers won't arrive until the end of April, we'll start running Pick Out A Puffin walks and boat trips from early May