This weekend is Castle Semple Rowing Club’s annual Regatta. This is always a huge event with lots of people coming from all over the country to participate. Visitors to the Centre also come to see all the action happening on the Loch.

This means that the car park can become very busy with contenders’ cars as well as visitors’.  We advise if you are planning to visit Castle Semple this weekend to try and come by public transport. The Centre is a short walk from Lochwinnoch Train Station and just next to the National Cycle Route 7.

We would appreciate your patience during this busy time and will have parking attendants available on the day. The usual disabled parking spaces will not be available although please speak to the attendants and you will be shown to temporary disabled spaces which will be in place for the day.

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Green Tiger Beetle  Cicindela campesteris

Green Tiger beetles are easily recognised by their iridescent green colouring and creamy yellow spots.  Their long legs make them agile hunters and their large eyes allow them to spot any potential prey.  Adults have strong sickle shaped jaws with several teeth and will eat any small invertebrates they can catch including spiders, caterpillars and ants.  If disturbed they will fly for short distances very fast and they make a buzzing sound in flight.  They can be seen on sunny days along sandy sections of the Kelly Cut, also look out for the small burrows of their larvae.  The larvae also prey on small invertebrates that either fall in or stray to close to their little circular entranced burrow holes.

On the loch shore path they sampled wood sorrel and likened its taste to green apples. We also saw orange tip butterfly, peacock and small white. We pointed out cuckoo flower to the boys (and one girl!) as it is where the orange tip butterflies lay their eggs for the emerging caterpillar to feed.

Working at Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park is very beneficial for gaining expertise from the experienced full time staff and can provide new training opportunities and challenges. The Park relies on new seasonal staff to continue on the high quality work the rangers do with schools, community groups, public events and volunteers all year round. It’s a very busy and varied job!

Let’s meet them!

Based at Castle Semple Centre:

Stephen McLean

I graduated in 2000 with a degree in Countryside Management. I have since worked as a ranger in Ayrshire and Perthshire, and as a Wildlife Guide in France. I also worked as a ranger for Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park at Castle Semple in 2009, and am pleased to be back this year. Through doing butterfly surveys, I have become very interested in butterfly ecology.I aim to learn more about the built heritage and history of the park this year.

My name’s Emily and I graduated back in 2009 with a degree in Ecology, and since then have undertaken a range of jobs including office lackey, wildlife guide, sloth wrangler, boat crew, kiwi wrestler, stable assistant and more than I can trouble to remember! I have spent some time out travelling various parts of the world but have to admit Scotland takes some beating, and since working on the Western Isles last year I can’t imagine being anywhere else in the world. I have volunteered as a ranger in the past in various capacities and am looking forward to putting my skills to use, and learning a wealth of new ones. As well as taking advantage of the kayaking on the loch!

Tom Hall

I graduated from Portsmouth University in 2005 and since then been chasing birds of prey through Scotland and Wales. I worked for the RSPB on the national merlin survey, looking at breeding pairs of merlin in Mid Wales. I then worked with peregrine falcon as a species protection officer for the Scottish Wildlife Trust at the Falls of Clyde living in a luxury caravan near the Eyrie for 5 months. Last year I got to know the Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park well as I worked as a ranger at Kelburn Country Park.

Hayley Douglas (continuing on at Castle Semple from the winter season)

Hi I’m Hayley and I’m at Castle Semple for my third summer.  I live in Lochwinnoch so working at Castle Semple is very handy for me as it allows me to get involved with the local community through my work.  It also means that folk remember you when you do crazy things, like getting dressed up as the blonde one from Abba at the centre’s 40th birthday party last year. (People sang Waterloo at me for almost a month afterwards when they saw me in the street.) I’m a qualified BTO bird ringer and I’m often seen down at the swans speaking to visitors. I love natural history and working with people so I’m hoping to pass some of my knowledge onto visitors this year in order to help them become more involved in the outdoors.

Based at Greenock Cut Centre:

Nathalie Moriarty

My name is Nathalie and I have now started my third season in the park. I have always loved the outdoors and wanted a job in which I can help preserve our natural landscape and teach others about its importance. I studied Tropical Environmental Science at Aberdeen University and also have an MSc in Ecotourism. In my spare time I love travelling, visiting family and friends abroad regularly. My objective this season within the Park is to design a new interpretation board at the Greenock Cut Visitor Centre.

 Susan Rodger

I grew up with Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park on my doorstep, and spent much of my childhood in the “Great Outdoors”, developing a keen interest in our natural environment. On leaving school in 2007, I moved to Aberdeen to study Conservation Biology and was a member of the Conservation Society which gave me the opportunity to undertake various conservation related projects. In 2011, I graduated with a 1^st class BSc. (Hons.) in Conservation Biology, and in August 2011 I began volunteering with the ranger service at the Park’s Greenock Cut Visitor Centre. I am looking forward to the environmental education side of the job, with the opportunity to teach children about our natural environment.

Based at Muirshiel Centre:

Claire Paterson (continuing on at Muirshiel from the winter season)

Hi! This will be my 4th season with Clyde Muirshiel and I’m very pleased to be rejoining the team at Muirshiel Centre. I have more than one role in the Park as I have recently been involved in doing a little information provision, through advertising in local publications and running our social media. I also have the privilege of being involved with the Branching Out Programme in the Park, helping people with their mental health and wellbeing. I look forward to the new season and working with lots of new people!     

All of our rangers are friendly and eager to share their knowledge and experiences so please don’t hesitate to approach them if you have a question or just want to say hello!

The team used the green pontoon and the area right in front of the tower, closing off access for a portion of the day. Several local people and fans of the show were down watching the action patiently from the Visitor Centre ramps!

We would like to thank the public for their patience and we look forward to seeing the epsiode, due to be screened in August.

at Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park

Staff and local communities at Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park are delighted to be celebrating two successes in the recent Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) funding announcements.  The funding awards for the Semple Trail Heritage Project and Scotland’s Mountain Woodland project total nearly one million pounds and will benefit Lochwinnoch and the wider community.              

 The Semple Trail Heritage Project will benefit from an award of £399 000 for developments at Castle Semple Country Park, within Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park.  This award is the result of a successful stage 2 bid to HLF to enhance heritage and access. 

 Charlie Woodward, Manager of the Regional Park is delighted by the news.  ‘HLF funding will let us tell the story of the Semple Estate and make access to its rich natural and cultural heritage easier and more fun.  Castle Semple Country Park already receives around 350,000 visitors per year.  The Semple Trail Heritage Project will let us enhance facilities to make isits to the Park even more rewarding.  Additionally there will be events for visitors of all ages and skills development programmes with young people.’

 The funding was secured by Renfrewshire Council in cooperation with the South Renfrewshire Access Network Initiative (SRANI) partnership.  SRANI has for some time been developing a path network linking routes, facilities and attractions around Castle Semple Loch and this latest step marks the beginning of the most ambitious stage of development so far. 

Community representatives were united in welcoming the award saying “funding for the Semple Trail Heritage Project is great news for the communities of Lochwinnoch and Howwood. The conservation of natural and built heritage along with improved physical access within such an important nature site will help enhance local pride. Visitors from all over Scotland will get a better understanding of the facilities and attractions and the history behind them.  So much has already been achieved by the SRANI partnership and the Semple Trail will be good for the area”.

 An ice house, grotto and cascades from the former Castle Semple Estate will be conserved and promoted to visitors.  New and upgraded paths plus interpretation will encourage visitors to learn about and enjoy these heritage features. There will be lots of volunteering and skills development opportunities as well as an activity and public engagement programme for visitors and school children.  Thanks to an innovative partnership with Renfrewshire Council’s Museums and Arts Service, the project will be working with schoolchildren from all over Renfrewshire.

 A key part of the project is the ‘Windows on Wildlife’ programme which will use a variety of technologies including cameras to record, present and interpret wildlife in the area.  Cameras will allow visitors to learn more about everyday species such as swallows and also to watch rare or infrequently seen wildlife such as otters, badgers or roe deer.

Elsewhere in Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park – ‘Scotland’s Mountain Woodland Project’ will take place along the Calder Glen from Lochwinnoch to Muirshiel Country Park.

 Working in partnership with the landowner and Highland Birchwoods a large scale wildwood is planned in Calder Glen that will have native species such as aspen, rowan, willow, birch and juniper.  Scottish mountain woodlands have largely disappeared from the uplands and this scheme aims to create around 150 hectares of woodland with over 190,000 trees in the Regional Park.  

 As the woodland establishes badgers, otters, stoats as well as birds like kestrels, buzzards, peregrines, ravens, long-eared owl, barn owl and short-eared owl are likely to use the developing wood.  Part of the site is in a Special Protection Area for hen harriers and here the tree planting will be less dense, so that it retains an open aspect, giving excellent hunting areas for this species. 

Clyde Muirshiel and two other sites (Dundreggan Estate and Lochluichart and Scatwell Estates) are involved in the overall project.  Free training courses will take place at the three sites twice a year.  As well as creating a diverse woodland habitat the project will involve volunteers with tree planting species surveying.

 The project will establish a wildlife corridor linking important nature conservation sites in the valley and the moorlands.  These corridors also help species to adapt to climate change.

Wood–sorrel is one of our early spring time flowers and is often overlooked, it is a plant of shady habitats and appears before woodland trees come fully into leaf.  It is often found by streams and damp places where its white solitary flower with delicate lilac veins can be found rising out of its trefoil clover type leaves.

The plant has a strange reproductive cycle in that it has two flowering periods. The white flowers appear in April lasting to May producing a capsule from which few seeds are discharged.

However, during the summer a second flowering occurs – these prolific new Wood-sorrel blooms, however, rarely open, for they are self-pollinating, and have no need to attract insect help. In late-summer and early autumn they develop egg-shaped fruits that explode when ripe, catapulting out their cargo of tiny, orange seeds.

This second far less noticeable bloom helps maintain the numbers of this pretty spring time flower. Look out for it the next time your somewhere shady or damp.

This weekend at Castle Semple is the British National Sailing Championships 2012 for model yacht racing. The group will be there till late on Saturday afternoon and most of the day of Sunday.

There are approximately 42 skippers descending on Lochwinnoch for the weekend. Its a family affair for the groups with children joining their parents on the lochshore. This is sure to provide a fantastic spectacle from anyone visiting over the bank holiday weekend. The race starts are very exciting with most of the races only last a few minutes and everyone is very competitive!

Regional Park Manager Charles Woodward will be joining the group to give out the prizes on Saturday. Charles was also delighted to accept an invitation to join them for a meal at Bowfield Country Club.

Want to see a sneak preview? Have a look on Youtube for clips from previous years!