Kinneil Lagoons – Boost the Roost

Kinneil Lagoons is located between Grangemouth and Bo’ness and is the most important waterbird high tide roost within the Inner Forth, attracting thousands of wintering birds such as knot, dunlin and black-tailed godwit each year. The 32ha site is part of the Firth of Forth Special protection Area (SPA). The lagoons were created when the intertidal zone was reclaimed in 1969, when a seawall was built along the seaward side as part of the Kinneil Kerse landfill site operation. The lagoons are linked to the Forth through a series of large pipes in the seawall, which allows sea water to come in and go out with each tidal cycle. The resulting saline lagoon/mud habitat is an extremely rare habitat on the Forth.

Unfortunately the wetland and interpretative works that were part of this project did not take place. However 1.38ha of woodland to the south of the lagoons has been felled and thinned, Japanese knotweed has been treated and litter has been removed. To carry out the other aspects of the project would have required a number of permissions to have been secured. Unfortunately it was not possible to complete this stage of the project in time to guarantee that the whole project would be delivered and complete before the end of the IFLI programme in 2018. As such the difficult decision to withdraw the remainder of the project was made. Kinneil Lagoons remains an important place for wintering birds and a great place to see why the Inner Forth is so special for wildlife. You can read about the project achievements in the Kinneil Lagoons - Boost the Roost End of Project Report, available to download at the bottom of this webpage.

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This work was co funded by the LIFE financial instrument of the European Community through  EcoCoLife: