Animals

There is a surprisingly wide variety of animal life around Rattray Head.

Rabbits are the one thing you cannot miss. We used to live near the place that Watership Down was based upon and we saw a handful of rabbits, although there would have been many more at other times of the day. Rattray Head is overrun with literally thousands of them and you will see at least dozens if not hundreds every day of the year. Approaching our home along the lane, especially at dawn or dusk, you will see hoardes of wildebunnies crossing the road in front of you as they must get to their own home before the danger arrives. Care must be taken walking the dunes as it is all too easy to twist an ankle in the many holes.

August 2010 - Rather like a Scottish Watership Down, we are still surrounded by the thousands of rabbits that inhabit the fields and dunes. Springtime is the most fun of course with all the teeny tiny fluff bundles hopping around.

We’ve always enjoyed the occasional evening just watching bats swooping around our home and hostel. Now a ‘bat’ guest has indicated they are probably brown long-eared and pipistrelles and are actually living somewhere in our roofspace.

Roe deer live in nearby Rattray Woods and are regularly seen in the open fields or crossing the lane heading to the Loch of Strathbeg for fresh water.

Badgers are occasionally seen around St Mary's chapel waddling along the lane ahead of the car before turning off through a gap into the fields.