Insect Watching Site

Built in the 1840s as a kitchen garden for the local estate, Glenfinart Walled Garden in Ardentinny is now community-led garden and in keeping with its kitchen garden roots. An orchard grows native fruit trees, and there are beds and a polytunnel for growing organic fruit and vegetables. Children can explore the bird hide, bug hide and sensory garden, created in partnership with BBC Beechgrove Garden.  A wildflower area is full of bee-friendly flowers as part of the Friends of the Earth's Bee cause campaign.

A sloping area in the grounds of some flats with wild flowers.

Waste ground in a residential area which isn't suitable for building on due to marshy and boggy ground. This area provides a vital habitat and refuge for local wildlife such as hedgehogs, frogs, insects and birds. The occasional deer have even been reportedly sighted here. Plant life grows here uninhibited.   

Mature trees and hedging, which line the Argyll Street edge of the station are alive with birdlife. The trees are planted on a regularly mown lawn. The trees give the main road, Argyll Street, a lush appearance. The Argyll Road side of the station has a large section of open lawn, which doesn't appear to be used for anything and is regularly mown. 

The grounds of the community hospital are mainly to the front, running along Argyll Street (A885). Mature trees are dotted around one section of the large lawn area. The lawn appears to be regularly mown, except for one thin strip by the pavement on Argyll Street. A couple of trimmed native hawthorn trees grow along the same edge, near to the bus stop on Argyll Street. The blossom attracts pollinators and the dense growth habit of hawthorn makes it a safe habitat for small birds. 

Nestled behind the colourful Tigh na Cladach eco-house development on the outskirts of Dunoon, Bullwood nature trail is a wooded hillside that was once the extensive garden grounds of a mansion house called Alderwood. There are many mature trees and many woodland plants, including hawthorn, primroses, foxgloves, ferns, mosses and fungi. A wildlife pond is a habitat for frogs and more. The site it currently quite overgrown in places with some large patches of invasive plants including Himalayan balsam.

A small area at the bottom of the drive between the hospital and the stadium that contains well-established trees including beech, oak, hazel, rowan, as well as wildflowers and stream.

A community-owned and run site that includes spaces to sit and enjoy nature and the view. Blairmore Gardens also has facilities to allow people to enjoy and identify nature including some interpretation boards, bug hotels and an insect viewer. There are raised beds where people can bring food to grow and share. At the top of the field, there is a large, mature oak tree that is home to lots of wildlife and various types of gall such as oak apples, silky button galls and spangle galls.

Walk through the Scottish native woodland of oak, ash, birch, rowan and hazel at Ardnadam. Look out for the lichens and mosses that indicate that this woodland is part of Scotland's growing temperate rainforest.