Tentsmuir Forest
Local History
Note: This article was written around 2003–2005. Prices, facilities, and other practical details may have changed — please check current sources before visiting.
Tentsmuir is a popular, extensive pine forest planted on the sand dunes at the mouth of the River Tay. There is a wide variety of plants, wildlife and architectural heritage.
The land ( 3,700 acres, or 12 square miles ) was acquired by the Forestry Commission in the 1920s and planted predominantly with Scots and Corsican pine. In addition to commercial forestry, careful management has created an interesting mixture of open spaces, ponds, trees, and sand dunes that are rich in wildlife including three species of roosting bat.
Several forest walks begin at the Kinshaldy car park and picnic site, and of special interest is the 19th-century ice house and pond built to keep locally-caught salmon fresh.
The area of Tentsmuir Point is included as one of Scotland’s 73 National Nature Reserves, which are areas of land set aside for nature, where the main purpose of management is the conservation of habitats and species of national and international significance.
This large area of sand dunes and beach at the mouth of the Tay Estuary forms an important roosting and feeding area for huge congregations of seaduck, waders and wildfowl, as well as a haul-out area for over 2,000 both common and grey seals. The reserve’s grassland and dunes are especially favoured by a wide variety of colourful butterflies.
Facilities include a car park and picnic facilities at Kinshaldy, with information panels, trails, and access to extensive beach frontage. Toilets. Parking charge is £1.00 for cars and £15.00 for coaches .
The Kinshadly beach area includes a former icehouse and WW2 fortifications. Extensive views out over sand dunes to the North Sea and St. Andrews. The beach area, known as Tentsmuir Sands, was included in the Marine Conservation Society’s Good Beach Guide 2003. This means that our local beach is included in the Charity’s list of Scotland’s 32 cleanest beaches.
In prehistoric times, the district around Tayport was inhabited by Neolithic Settlers, whose clay pottery and finely-wrought stone arrowheads have been found in considerable quantities on Tentsmuir, once an area of heath and moorland, which is now owned by the Forestry Commission.
These settlers had not learned how to use metals and did not practise agriculture, but lived by hunting and fishing. The sites of some of the early settlements have been located by large collections of shells and, although nothing remains of their homes – probably primitive turf huts – one of their boats, a hollowed-out tree trunk, has been found in a sandbank near Newburgh, further up the Tay. Dundee Museum keeps a good collection of Neolithic artefacts.
Tentsmuir has also been the site of dozens of exiting Bronze Age finds – implements and ornaments made by the Celtic invaders who settled in the district, have been discovered near the remains of iron-smelting sites.
sources:
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the Forestry Commission web site, Kinshaldy Beach, and Tentsmuir Forest
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the Scottish National Heritage web site, Tentsmuir Point
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a booklet titled ‘The Burgh of Tayport: an Introduction’, published in 1985 by Tayport Community Council.
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Map of Scotland showing National Nature Reserves as of March 2003.
Links:
www.tayport.org.uk/tentsmuir_forest/