Ardeer Peninsula

Recording the sand dunes of the Ardeer Peninsula

The Ardeer Peninsula is one of the largest sand dune systems in southern Scotland. For over a hundred years the public were not allowed to access the site, owing to the large explosives factory that dominated the area. However, by the late 2000s most of the site lay abandoned and was legally open to the public.

Very quickly, naturalists began visiting the Peninsula. It soon became clear that Ardeer was of national importance for biodiversity and should be officially protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). However, relatively few biological records existed for the site, because of the long history of public exclusion. So over the next decade, many naturalists from across southwest Scotland undertook biological recording at Ardeer to help amass a species list to support protection of the site. The result of this concerted effort was a list of around 100 species of invertebrates with conservation designations, the largest list of bees and wasps in Scotland (124 species), and several species of bee and beetle not recorded anywhere else in the country.

These biological records formed the basis of a request for SSSI status submitted to NatureScot in 2022.

This biodiversity data story was shared with the Better Biodiversity Data project, led and managed by the NBN Trust and supported by NatureScot and The Scottish Government.