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Habitat

Location

 Nairn's location at the mouth of a river, with spectacular sea views across the Moray Firth, has earned the town a reputation as the premier holiday resort in the north of . Nairn is not only a magnet for tourists from all parts of the UK and abroad, but a popular centre for day trippers who want to enjoy beaches which have gained national recognition for both their infrastructure and high standards of cleanliness.

Long sunshine hours and low rainfall - less than 25 inches (63 cms) a year - give Nairn a climate that is among the best in the country, thanks to the prevailing south-westerlies dumping their moisture on the hill masses well behind the town. For those who enjoy the outdoors, Nairnshire has a diverse natural habitat of stunning quality extending from its coast and harbour inland to the Monadhliath hills which link with the Cairngorm mountain range.

The Moray Firth 

 As well as its comfortable climate, the Moray Firth hosts a fine marine habitat, including a resident school of Bottlenose dolphins - one of only two in . A series of interpretive facilities helps visitors make the most of their trip. As well as a way-marked trail, there are eight information panels that introduce the rich coastal environment, the story of Victorian tourism and the history of the fishing fleet.

 For more information about the habitat of the Moray Firth coast click here. To watch dolphins in the Moray Firth click here.

Blue Flag Beaches

This year, Nairn’s Central Beach retained its Blue Flag status awarded by the Tidy Britain Group - one of only seven resort beaches in to do so. Such recognition is the culmination of investment by successive councils which first embarked on a structured Tourist Management Programme (TMP) seven years ago to derive maximum benefit from the town's greatest natural asset - its beach. The initiative began in 1994 as the Nairn Seafront TMP, a multi-agency approach to develop the tourism potential of the seafront. The aim was to improve and enhance facilities and to encourage development appropriate to local conditions.

 The success of this programme was recognised when the project won the Scottish Tourist Board's Tourism and The Environment Thistle Award in 1995. Facilities now in place include information boards, parking, new toilet facilities, a paddling pool meeting the highest EU standards, a fitness trail and leisure park, swimming pool and fitness suite, putting green and, of course, the magnificent natural amphitheatre of the Nairn Links - for generations the centre of many public celebrations and festivals including the Nairn Highland Games.

 Nairn's East Beach

 The same year as the TMP was launched, Nairn’s Lochloy Caravan Park at the East Beach was redeveloped in a massive £1.3 million programme which provided a new reception centre for caravanners, including an entertainment suite and swimming pool.

 The TMP has continued apace since these early days. The East Beach Access Project developed a system of access paths through the sand dunes to the East Beach from the neighbouring caravan site. Interpretative panels were installed along the promenade, giving visitors an insight into the town and its past as one of the North's leading fishing ports. Victorian finger signposts provide directions to various points of interest.

 The bathing waters off Nairn now pass the most stringent EU tests with Scottish Water having invested over £6 million in wastewater management over the past couple of years.

Culbin Nature Reserve

 Immediately to the east of the Lochloy Caravan Site lies the sprawling Culbin Forest, designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and Culbin Nature Reserve. An area of outstanding natural beauty, Culbin is a unique landscape of sand bars, mud flats, salt marshes, sand dunes and coniferous forest.

 In the Middle Ages, much of the area now covered by forest was prized grazing. Overgrazing and the removal of marram grass from the dunes for use as thatching left the dunes unstable and over many years they encroached on the land. Storms of 1694 saw fields and farmhouses buried. In subsequent years there were reports of trees and even a church spire peaking through the sand.

 Between 1922 and 1931, the Forestry Commission purchased the dunes and embarked on a massive tree planting programme to halt the drifting sands.

 Planting continued for over 40 years. As the forest matured, a plethora of animal bird and plant life made the forest their home, culminating in the area receiving SSSI status in 1973.

Cawdor Estate

 Cawdor Estate - centred on the historic Cawdor Castle which boasts its own fine gardens and Big Wood - provides a ranger service taking visitors on guided walks throughout the estate from May to September. The Highland Council's Inner Moray Firth coastal ranger leads explorations of the Culbin Sands, the River Nairn and Whiteness Head, the peninsula four miles to the west of Nairn.