Special Areas of Conservation

| Introduction to SACs
| Background to SACs
| Details of SACs
| Marine SACs
| Management of SACs
| Habitats and Birds Directives Information |

Details of SACs

On 17 March 2005, Scottish Ministers formally designated 238 sites in Scotland as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), covering a total area of approximately 957,000 hectares.

At 31 March 2008 there is also one Site of Community Importance (SCI) in Scotland, covering 16 ha, which has been adopted by the European Commission, but not yet designated as an SAC.

View a current list of SACs in Scotland on JNCC’s website
More site details are available on Sitelink
View a list of Annex I habitats or Annex II species features
Search the UK list of SACs (search by part of SAC name, unitary authority and/or interest group/specific interest feature or species)
Link to clickable UK map of SACs for geographical searching
Find out more about the background to SAC selection, including site descriptions for all UK SACs and further information on the moderation process. This documentation effectively updates and supersedes JNCC’s Report 270 on the selection of SACs in the UK.
Download a spreadsheet of UK SAC data for detailed filtering/analysis
Download a GIS data file of SAC boundaries for the whole of the UK