News
River Stinchar DSFB meeting and AGM
The Clerk to the Stinchar DSFB has announced teh date of the next Board meeting and AGM. The details are as follows:- Date of Meetings: Thursday 16th May, 2019...
River Ayr smolt run is under way and problems continue at Catrine
The smolt run is upon us again and we are seeing numbers of smolts increasing at Catrine Dam again this year. Since the small amount of rain we had last week, numbers are steadily increasing between penstock and lade and it seems only a matter of time until we will be...
Interesting assessment of the Ayr and observations on the Doon – dated 1859
Ronald Campbell from the Tweed foundation recently sent me an extract from a book called Fish and Fishing in the Lone Glens of Scotland which provided the author Robert Knox's rather dim view of the Ayr and the villages in the catchment but this book is a faithful...
Lower Irvine Erosion issues
We had an interesting sort of morning looking at erosion on the lower Irvine with a view to suggesting solutions to Irvine Angling Club who are concerned about bank loss and instability on their stretch. It is a long term issue but we also identified that the river...
Revisiting Darvel Dam….in search of a solution
We visited Darvel today to again see if we can find something that may help salmon and trout migrate beyond the Dam that lies just upstream of Ranoldcoup Bridge. We've attempted to find solutions here before, first through RAFTS when Mike Beech, a fish pass...
Girvan erosion and other problems
While on the Girvan yesterday looking at a potential site suitable for a green engineering solution to cut erosion, we became aware that there was slurry spreading going on nearby and boy was it going on! It's the time of the year for it and there's no doubt the black...
Giant hogweed developing
Giant hogweed is developing along the rivers slightly earlier than last year and we estimate the onset of spring is at least 2 week ahead of last year. I checked the worst infested areas on the lower Ayr this morning following last year's in-house control of key...
Tarbolton Landfill: A Ticking Timebomb!
For nearly a year, Tarbolton Landfill has been closed after the parent company went into liquidation. All operations on site ceased and the pumps were removed. The Water of Fail flows beside the coup which was constructed on a wetland. The threat of pollution...

