Red Kites feeding station at Bellymack Hill Farm – Scotland
We were in Scotland last week and took a short break in a cottage close to Loch Fyne, the longest of the Scottish sea lochs. Our journey didn’t take us directly to our holiday location as we had decided to visit a Red Kite feeding station in the superb Galloway Forest. To be honest, even if we had not been going to see the Red Kites we would almost certainly have taken that route anyway as it really is one of my favourite parts of the UK. Anyone who follows my motorbike blog will have seen plenty of pictures from my numerous trips that way over the years, and I have frequently ridden along parts of the ‘red kite trail’
In fact the last time my wife and I were in Scotland together, (in 2019 I think) we headed up that way in the car and loved the drive. On this occasion though not only were we looking forward to our short break in Argyle we were eagerly anticipating our visit to the Red Kites feeding station at Bellymack Hill Farm in the Galloway Forest..
Bellymack Hill Farm
If you have even just the slightest interest in seeing Red Kites then it’s almost guaranteed that a visit here wont leave you disappointed. The Kites are fed every single day of the year at 2:00pm, and I understand this has been happening consistently for the last 15 years.
The cost is modest as well, at just £5 per person. We spent about three hours there and thought it superb value. There is plenty of information about the feeding station available online and the Scottish Land & Estates web site has a quick and decent read about Bellymack farm and the work of the owner Anne Johnstone. Additionally you can visit the Bellymack Hill Farm web site at this link.
We will be going back
At some point we expect we will make a return visit. It’s just far too good a spectacle to only see once.
The weather conditions were good in so much as it was dry and not too cold, but they were not quite ideal from a photography perspective – the often grey sky made it a little tricky at times to get decent shots. I think as well that there’s something of a knack to getting great shots of these magnificent birds and it’s one that needs some practice.
You can read more about our trip to Arglye in Part 2 at this link.
Or head to Part 3 at this link
Picture gallery
Clicking on any of the images below will open a picture gallery that you can click or scroll through. There are more pictures than I normally put up in a regular blog post, but on this occasion I thought there was merit in it. You can see edited/enhanced Red Kite pictures by clicking this link.
