30 Hope Street REE BURN AND GLENBUCK LOCH Lanark SITE OF SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC INTEREST ML11 7NE
SITE MANAGEMENT STATEMENT Tel: 01555 665928 Fax: 01556 661966
Site code: 1342
Purpose
This is a public statement prepared by SNH for owners and occupiers of the SSSI. It outlines the reasons it is designated as an SSSI and provides guidance on how its special natural features should be conserved or enhanced. This Statement does not affect or form part of the statutory notification and does not remove the need to apply for consent for operations requiring consent. We welcome your views on this statement.
Description of the site
Ree Burn and Glenbuck Loch Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is located between the towns of Muirkirk and Douglas, and incorporates two areas on either side the main road connecting these settlements. These areas represent, respectively, an 800m section of the Ree Burn and a 400m length of the eastern bank of Glenbuck Loch. Together they illustrate a sequence of sedimentary rocks demonstrating the transition from marine to terrestrial conditions. This transition occurred across the southern Midland Valley during the Wenlock epoch (part of the Silurian geological period), around 428-421 million years ago.
The geography of what we now call Britain was completely different at this time. England and Scotland were on different continents separated by an ocean termed the Iapetus. Scotland was on the edge of a continental landmass which also included Greenland and North America. It was in the shallow marine environment on the southern fringes of this ‘supercontinent’ that these sedimentary rocks were deposited, often incorporating the remains of sea creatures. Through time the shallow sea, and indeed the Iapetus ocean as a whole, ceased to exist as the two continental landmasses drifted together and collided. As a result, the marine sediments (sand, silt and mud) that accumulated between the two continents were compressed, contorted and deformed, tilting the originally horizontal layers and raising the former ocean well above the sea level of the time.
This nationally important site is one of the most important Silurian inliers in the Midland Valley. An ‘inlier’ represents an area of older rock surrounded by younger rocks. The inliers comprise of various rock layers, which are typically named after places where these layers were first discovered and described. The actual transition between a marine and terrestrial environment took place between deposition of the Ree Burn Formation and the Parisholm Conglomerate. The Ree Burn Formation – deposited in a marine environment – is noted for yielding fossils of very early shrimps
C80203 1 of the genus Ceratiocaris, while the Hagshaw Hills Fish Bed Formation – deposited in a lake – bears fossils of primitive jawless fish as well as the fossilised remains of eurypterids (water scorpions), worm tubes and algae.
Although the site yields fossil material, it does not at the present time appear to be a focus of much fossil collecting. The exposures remain visible and accessible for research and education and so the condition of the site is considered to be maintained as favourable.
Most of the southern component of Ree Burn and Glenbuck SSSI also forms part of the Muirkirk & North Lowther Uplands Special Protection Area (SPA), designated for its breeding populations of hen harrier, short-eared owl, peregrine, merlin and golden plover, and its non-breeding (wintering) population of hen harrier. None of these species is known to breed within the Ree Burn and Glenbuck SSSI, but the birds of prey in particular may hunt along the vegetated slopes adjacent to the river.
Natural features of Ree Burn and Feature condition (date monitored) Glenbuck Loch SSSI
Wenlock Favourable, maintained (30/08/2000)
The shrimp Ceratiocaris papilio, fossils of which are found in the Ree Burn formation.
Past and present management
The SSSI is divided between two different farm holdings, although in each case the land surrounding the exposures is open moorland grazed extensively by sheep. Such grazing may help to prevent encroachment of vegetation on to the important rock exposures.
Glenbuck Loch is a man-made water body created in 1802 as a reservoir for mills at Catrine. The loch is now used for angling and is also the start of the River Ayr Way, a 66-kilometre walkway following the River Ayr from its source at the loch to the sea at Ayr.
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Objectives for Management (and key factors influencing the condition of natural features)
We wish to work with the owners and occupiers to protect the site and to maintain and where necessary enhance its features of special interest. SNH aims to carry out site survey, monitoring and research as appropriate to increase our knowledge and understanding of the site and its natural features.
1. To maintain the condition and extent of the geological exposures of Ree Burn and Glenbuck Loch SSSI by ensuring sampling from exposures only takes place in accordance with the Geological Code. Fossil collecting should be subject to the recognised Fossil Collecting Code of Practice and any finds should be reported to SNH and the local museum service and appropriately catalogued and photographed. Outcrops should also remain accessible and free from obstruction by vegetation, tipped material or construction and bank stabilisation works. Access to the site should follow the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC).
Date last reviewed: 6 August 2007
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