DTE Scotland: About our ranges
The estate has various training areas, including:
Barry Buddon training centre
Most of this is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area. Birds abound: terns, shell duck, skylarks, meadow pipits, linnets, stonechats, fieldfares and redwings. Amphibians, reptiles and invertebrates are also abundant.
Castlelaw training area
Part of the Pentland Hills Regional Park overlaps the area, with juniper trees up to 200 years old. Some black grouse have been seen here.
Garelochhead training area
Some 3,320 hectares of moorland, forest and mountain, containing one SSSI (Ardgartan Forest). There are rare varieties of flora; three types of deer; sightings of wildcat; and black grouse and hen harriers.
Inverness training area
Whiteness Head, an SSSI, is mainly mudflats, with salt marsh, dune and shingle. It supports some 14,000 wildfowl and 11,000 waders. Birds seen here include the red-breasted merganser, common tern, osprey, bar-tailed godwit, redshank, cormorant, widgeon teal, goldeneye goosander and curlew.
Kirkcudbright training area
This has 17 of the county’s rarer plants county, including the narrow-leaved everlasting pea and cowslips. The coastline is a geological SSSI.
Tain Cudbright training area
This includes one of the most important UK sites for saltmarsh, accretion and juniper.