Taynish National Nature Reserve

All the native spring plants blossoming at Taynish lately encouraging all the pollinators 🌼 Also Hettie the shetland cow looking very confused why they’ve only had nuts and not their usual haylage and nuts as we start reducing the cows feed!

We had a great time on our amphibian counts at Taynish. The gatehouse ditch really is such a wonderful place to see all the action! We had frogs, diving beetles, newts, toad spawn, frog spawn, dragonfly larvae and over 1000 toads counted!

Toad spawn is so intricate, appearing as long strings of black eggs unlike frogs spawn which form clumps. They need strands of standing vegetation in deeper water than frogs to attach the eggs too. The spawn is often referred to as a ‘string of pearls’ The eggs only take between 2-4 weeks to hatch into tadpoles which are such an important feature of pond ecosystem and wider food chains. Just one element of spring to look out for whilst on your Taynish walks!

Happy start of spring! 🍃

We’ve been busy the last few weeks finishing off winter jobs. Such as… cutting and burning gorse, fixing the deer stalking high seats, raking ditches for dragonflies, checking new paths, planting oaks with the school, details on the shelter, finishing hen harrier roost counts, pulling rhodi and beech saplings, and setting trail cameras. Now we’re looking forward to all spring has to offer starting with our annual ditch toad/ spawn counts! 🐸

| spring | winter jobs | nature reserve work

The Tileworks trail path and car park is currently closed whilst we resurface the path. We’re looking forward to re-opening and having a slightly drier path!

Meanwhile today we’ve been busy clearing the gatehouse ditch at Taynish to create open areas for pond creatures, amphibians and dragonflies. A few primroses just starting but not quite out yet!

Happy 2026 from the Argyll NNRs! Hope you’ve enjoyed some lovely frosty walks round the reserves over the festive break and made lots of memories. Here’s to all that 2026 brings which for the reserves will be more nature, more exciting plans, more conserving habitats and more connecting people with nature ❄️

The smoother surface of the mill path is quite slippery at the start with the frosty weather so go steady!

It’s all been very busy and exciting at Taynish this last week as we’ve started our path repairs to the Mill path! It’s looking very smart and our wonderful contractors are doing a brilliant job through the torrential rain!

The mill path will remain closed until at least the end of this week (19th) and the car parking area reduced whilst the work is carried out. Thanks for your understanding and look forward to welcoming you all to see the exciting new paths!

The cows got their hooves trimmed yesterday ready for the Christmas break 🎄

A few recent jobs we’ve been working on at Taynish! Firstly we’ve been busy clearing vegetation around the gatehouse ditch which is key area for dragonflies - keeping this area open and clear of overhanging vegetation. We’ve also been doing lots of scraping back of the car park at Glasdrum and lay-bys at Taynish keeping everything open. We’ve also been busing getting to grips with installing the red cedar shingles on our visitor shelter and sorting drainage with volunteers. All very satisfying jobs, especially with the low winter sun shining on - although bit wet and wild today! Enjoy your weekends 🍃

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The popular Taynish run is back and is on this Saturday (8th Nov)! 🏃‍♀️

The run starts at Tayvallich church at 12 noon with approx 100 participants heading up the road into Taynish NNR, before returning and finishing outside the village hall. The road down to Taynish and the various NNR paths will be a bit busier than normal from between 12 noon and 2pm.

Please come along and support the runners on Saturday; you can even buy a raffle ticket or two at the hall. All funds raised from the event go to MacMillan Cancer Support.

Good luck to the runners!

Hector pulling a face and some scenic cow spots lately. We’ve also replaced the bench at Barr mor ready for taking in those sunsets 🌅

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Spooky things happening at Taynish! Ghosts have taken over the mill trail 👻 Come and have a go at our free self led family Halloween trail this weekend 🎃

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We’ve recently had a photography day with Lochgilphead high school students at Taynish enjoying all the temperate rainforest features and seeing everything a bit closer 📷 Thanks to Kilmartin museum for organising the day! We’ll be exhibiting the photos in the walls of the mill next spring. Nice to look back at the sunshine after a weekend of storms. Please bear with us as we tidy up after storm Amy 💨

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