St Cyrus

St Cyrus or Saint Cyrus (Scots: Saunt Ceerus), formerly Ecclesgreig (from Scottish Gaelic: Eaglais Chiric) is a village in the far south of Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Traditional salmon fishing with nets is still conducted from St Cyrus beach. Two ice houses that used to provide ice for packing salmon before transporting to market can still be seen. One is to the north end of the beach on the donkey track just below the Woodston Fishing Station, the other is further south next to Kirkside [this is now a private dwelling], not far from the St Cyrus National Nature Reserve Visitor Centre.^{[citation needed]}

St Cyrus National Nature Reserve (NNR) is situated between the village of St Cyrus and the North Sea. The Reserve comprises 92 hectares (230 acres) of coastal habitat in the northern third of Montrose Bay and is managed by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). The cliffs and dunes provide a nationally important habitat for flowering plants and insects, many of which grow at their northern limit in Britain. The reserve is one of the most important botanical sites on the north-east coast of Scotland, supporting over 300 plant species.

St Cyrus NNR is also one of the best-known bird sites in Angus and Kincardine, with over 70 different species of bird being recorded there. These include waders such as redshank, oystercatcher, common sandpiper and curlew. The cliffs also provide a home for buzzard, kestrel and peregrine falcon. Furthermore, the prevalence of gorse shrub provides a nesting place for such small perching birds as whitethroat, stonechat and yellowhammer.

With the abundance of wildflowers, St Cyrus NNR is also an important site for butterflies, moths and grasshoppers. One species of particular note is the Small blue butterfly, a UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) species at its northern habitat limit. There have also been over 200 species of moth recorded on the reserve.

St Cyrus NNR is also part of the St Cyrus and Kinnaber Links Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

There are known prehistorical archaeological sites in the general coastal area of St Cyrus. Examples of these features include Gourdon Hill to the north and the Stone of Morphie, both situated slightly to the west of the A92 road alignment.

In 2004, CFA Archaeology, conducted archaeological investigations, in advance of the construction of the Aberdeen to Lochside Natural Gas Pipeline, next to the village. There they discovered the remains of three ring-ditch roundhouses which they radiocarbon dated to the Late Bronze Age.