A survey of beaches across Tayside and Fife has revealed the quality of bathing water for 2023/24.
Environment agency Sepa carried out surveys at coastal spots across Scotland.
It found that 98% of the country’s bathing waters meet strict environmental standards.
Many in Tayside and Fife have been praised for having the highest standards of bathing water – but two sites have been deemed “poor” and a third “sufficient”.
Full list of bathing standards at beaches in Tayside and Fife for 2023/24
Dundee and Angus
- Arbroath (West Links) – Good
- Broughty Ferry – Excellent
- Carnoustie – Good
- Collieston – Good
- Lunan Bay – Excellent
- Monifieth – Good
- Montrose – Excellent
Fife
- Aberdour (Silversands) – Excellent
- Aberdour Harbour (Black Sands) – Good
- Anstruther (Billow Ness) – Excellent
- Burntisland – Good
- Crail (Roome Bay) – Excellent
- Elie (Harbour) and Earlsferry – Excellent
- Elie (Ruby Bay) – Excellent
- Kinghorn (Harbour Beach) – Poor
- Kinghorn (Pettycur) – Excellent
- Kingsbarns – Excellent
- Kirkcaldy (Seafield) – Excellent
- Leven – Sufficient
- Lower Largo – Poor
- St Andrews (East Sands) – Excellent
- St Andrews (West Sands) – Excellent
Bathing water classifications are calculated at the end of the bathing season and applied to each bathing water for the duration of the following season.
They are calculated using data from the four previous years.
Agricultural run-off and bacteria from dog fouling and gulls can be factors in causing water to be determined as poor quality.
The two bathing waters with a poor classification – Kinghorn (Harbour Beach) and Lower Largo – both have ongoing improvement plans in place.
An enhanced monitoring programme is now in place at Kinghorn (Harbour Beach) to identify potential sources of pollution.
At Lower Largo, Sepa says Scottish Water has conducted comprehensive studies into the sewerage infrastructure to identify any necessary upgrade requirements.
Surveillance work has identified some misconnected properties, which have now been connected to the public sewerage system correctly.
