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Elie Ness

Scotland  >  United Kingdom

Nice place to see coastal birds like Common Eider, Rock Pipit, and остригар. Great place to kill time before heading to Isle of May.

Added* by Common Wood-Pigeon
Most recent update 14 август 2025

Description

Ideally situated beside Anstruther, a popular location to leave for the Isle of May seabird colonies, Elie Ness is a decent place to see some birds. While seawatching you may come across Northern Gannet, Common Eider, морски корморан, or any number of gulls, like Сребренест галеб, Голем морски галеб, or мал црногрб галеб. Definitely other species can be seen here as well, eBirders have seen mergansers, terns, and more, and there are certainly auks to be found.

As far as the coast goes, there's cliffs, sandy beaches, rocky beaches, tall grass plains, tidal pools, and more. This leads to birds such as Мочварна овесарка and Rock Pipit, and if you look high up in the right season you may find полска чучулига. бела тресиопашка are abundant, as are чавка and both див гулаб and гулаб гурмиш. You may also be able to spot Обична (Црнонокна) ветрушка. Shorebirds like остригар and сива чапја enjoy the coasts.

Plenty more birds are seen, these are just the ones I saw on the one trip I made there. Keep in mind the eBird hotspot for Elie Ness is new and most of the sightings from the area aren't on the hotspot.

Details

Access

You can park at the Ruby Bay Car Parks. Press P on the map for directions. From there you can walk a number of trails, some vaguer than others, throughout the headland. You can stop by Lady's Tower and the Elie Ness Lighthouse at two of the corners of the peninsula, both places where you can get some seawatching in. You can alternatively walk the Fife Coastal Path, though you will then be leaving the Elie Ness headland.

Terrain and Habitat

Scattered trees and bushes , Moors/heathland , Beach , Sea , Canyon/cliff

Conditions

Hilly , Flat , Rocky , Wet , Sandy , Open landscape

Circular trail

Yes

Is a telescope useful?

Can be useful

Good birding season

All year round

Route

Unpaved road

Difficulty walking trail

Average walk

Accessible by

Foot

Birdwatching hide / platform

No

Extra info

Best to not get too close to the edges, no matter how tempting the Rock Pipit.

Also, if you have any other birds you saw here, please share and leave a comment! I know there are many more birds to be seen here, I'm just not quite sure which ones.

Links

View other birding spots in the area that are published on Birdingplaces

Map

Top 5 birds

Other birds you can see here

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