Keeping bats on our radar

With more than 270 historical buildings, 38 important gardens and 76,000 hectares of land across the country in our care, we have more than a few places where bats like to hang out!

Across Scotland, we have members of staff who are licensed to work with bats. These include countryside rangers, ecologists and building surveyors. They’re specially trained to handle and care for bats, perform surveys of estates, inspect bat roosts if required, and deal with young stray bats if they become isolated from a main roost.

We’ve surveyed our properties so that whenever any maintenance is being carried out, we know where bats are living and can ensure that their homes aren’t damaged. In addition, our work is shedding new light on the behaviour of these flying mammals and how they navigate and forage for food across various landscapes.

Rob Dewar, Nature Conservation Advisor says: ‘As bats are commonly found roosting across the Trust’s properties, it’s hugely important that any maintenance work within properties is preceded by a check for bats so as not to destroy whole roosts, especially with populations across Scotland and the UK declining considerably.’

You can get involved in our bat work by joining our rangers around the country on one of our many bat walks, and use bat detectors to hear for yourselves the extraordinary world of bats.

There are also opportunities to get more involved. At Inverewe in 2018 our conservation volunteers conducted a bat survey, recording the common pipistrelle and soprano pipistrelle as well as the brown long-eared bat. Heat maps created by the volunteers showed how the bats move through the landscape. Another study is planned.

Read more about the Inverewe bat survey

The National Trust for Scotland works every day to protect Scotland’s national and natural treasures. From coastlines to castles, art to architecture, wildlife to wilderness, we protect all of this for the love of Scotland.