RSPB Scotland Loch Leven — Local services in Scotland

RSPB Loch Leven is well worth a visit. This is our 2nd visit in as many years and would've visited more if we lived closer.

The staff were fantastic, friendly, helpful and informative, engaging and offering suggestions for possible sightings of the day. The facilities on site were very good. A modern building recently upgraded to include fully accessible toilets and ramps to outdoor locations towards the trails and hides. Toilets were very clean, spacious with excellent family toilets also. A well stocked gift shop and although I just remembered we didn't visit, they had a cafe upstairs. There is a fantastic foot pedestrian underpass taking you towards the Lochside trails and hides, make sure you take time to admire the beautiful mural painted on the staircase as you go down to the underpass. We visited 3 hides and were very well located on the Loch with very good visibility, bench seating and resting plinths for your binoculars/ scopes and coffee flask. Some of the hides are very large and have tables with children's appropriate colouring and study activities. All hides have leaflets and posters on the wall to aid you in your spotting experience.

All of the trail is wheelchair accessible however it is worth noting that it might be a bit of an effort getting back up the hills if you have manual wheelchair. I did spot at least one mobility scooter available for loan. The carpark has a decent amount of parking for standard vehicles, electric charging points and accessible parking. Note that the carpark is on an incline so make sure handbrake is engaged.

The woodland walks are good also with some seating scattered around, a children's play/adventure area with hides. There are also red squirrels on site if you are keeping and eye out too. We did spot 2 within a short time and not very far from the main complex building.

Located well on the main road a few minutes from the motorway. Highly...

New update: Been a while since been back and got lucky with more red squirrel sightings. Super active! Spotted a hawk not too far off from the squirrels o_O! Probably have a good day too…

Always say we’d want to come back more often as it’s just a beautiful area—even enjoyable on a “dreich” day — at least the views from the warm cafe. Just never seem to pull it off coming as often as would love too.

The staff is very kid friendly and little ones had a fun time on our relatively short visit this time. We enjoyed a good lunch: Tried the vedgi haggis on bake-potato: Was good! Though did steal a bit of baked beans from my kids to take over the top. Soup looked excellent, normally what I get but mixed it up.

Took turns sneaking off to see some of the feeders as our kids started an impromptu game of football in the court yard with another.

Recommend joining RSPB, nice little updates and free parking. Though just one of many lovely nature reserves to support and come back and visit when you can :)!

P. S. Look at other reviews for lovely photos: Roland Spiders has some excellent ones.

Old post … wow 10 months … bellow.

Update: They now use reusable containers to be more eco friendly! Awesome to see that! Hopefully come back sooner! Lovely place! Definitely a nice places to spend the day!

Old post (7 months ago) bellow

Got to see my first red squirrel!! Very lovely place for bird watching. Enjoyed the walks along the lake and in the woods. The cafe is very nice, near, and kid friendly.

They do a good job of being eco friendly except for their butter and jam would be nice to have those in reusable containers...

A beautiful spot and great for a lovely, wildlife filled walk. Pretty progressive and environmentally minded in many ways (e.g. sign says there is e-bike charging available; individual toilets, rather than male/female, and ample baby changing makes for inclusive toiletting; car charging on site, albeit a bit glitchy and low powered; vegan options in the cafe). It is let down by a couple of things: we were approached 3 times in half an hour to join as members and on all 3 occassions found it hard to get away (a basic "no thank you" didn't suffice, nor did "we really must get on now as we've got quite a journey with our two young kids"). The people were very nice, it just felt a bit jarring when we were trying to be together as a family. Secondly, the cafe is very basic, with only unhealthy fare, and feels quite enclosed and echoey, meaning the loud coffee machine feels quite prominent. The staff were also very disorganised, making for very slow service (didn't know where things were, kept on asking customers to repeat bits of their order) and one of the staff was being a tad passive aggressive. Not the best vibe. All in all, a great place to come, but I'd recommend being an RSPB member (or pretending to be one if asked by one of the people on the stalls) and bringing your own food supplies (unless you're just after a little...