In 2025 the highest number of Scotland’s bathing waters on record will meet the best environmental standards, with 87% achieving Excellent or Good classifications. A further 10% will meet the Sufficient standard.
This reflects an ongoing positive trend for Scottish bathing water quality over the past decade since classifications were first reported against new Regulations in 2015. In 2015 there were 84 designated bathing waters, of which 17 were Excellent. For the year ahead, Scotland will have 89 designated bathing waters, of which 50 are Excellent.
As Scotland’s principal environmental regulator, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) routinely analyses water quality at all of Scotland’s 89 designated bathing water sites during the summer months to protect human health.
In tandem with environmental monitoring, SEPA works with operators and stakeholders across the country to direct action, including millions of pounds of investment, to improve bathing water quality.
For the 2025 bathing season Scotland’s bathing water classifications will be:
- 50 (56.18%) Excellent
- 27 (30.34%) Good
- 9 (10.11%) Sufficient
- 3 (3.37%) Poor
Classifications are calculated at the end of the bathing water season using data from the previous four years. They apply to bathing waters for the duration of the following season.
Ruth Stidson, Principal Scientist for Bathing Waters at SEPA, said:
“The highest number of Scotland’s bathing waters rated Excellent or Good for 2025 represents tangible improvements following more than a decade of targeted investment and ongoing work with Scottish Water, land managers and stakeholders to improve our water environment.
“Scotland’s bathing waters monitoring programme has significantly expanded since it began in 1988 and has helped identify pollution issues so crucial improvement measures can be implemented and pollution reduced at the source.
“Protecting and improving our bathing waters is crucial for water users, local economies, and communities. While we celebrate the improvements made so far, we are not complacent. We will continue our work to ensure these improvements are sustained and where necessary further improvements are made, so people can enjoy our bathing waters now and in the future.”
Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy Gillian Martin said:
“I am pleased to see an increase in the number of our bathing waters achieving the highest classification for bathing water quality, with 87% achieving Good or Excellent water quality status. We continue to see the benefits of our continued investment in protecting and improving bathing waters across the country, and targeted work in priority catchments.
“However, there is still work to do to ensure that all designated bathing waters meet the required standards. We want to make sure that as many people as possible can enjoy our bathing waters, which is why we continue to work closely with SEPA and Scottish Water to monitor and improve water quality.”
Reducing rural diffuse pollution – a success story for Scotland
SEPA’s ongoing work with Scotland’s farming community to reduce the risk of water pollution from rural diffuse pollution has contributed to improvements in bathing water classifications over the past decade.
This has been particularly apparent in regions such as Ayrshire, where improvements required by SEPA have included increased slurry storage, fencing, alternative sources of livestock watering, and the planting of riparian “buffer zones” to move farming activities back from watercourses. Many of these measures have been supported by Scottish Government funding.
Some of these improvements take time to translate into water quality improvement, however quantifiable improvements to the water environment are now being evidenced through water sampling data in recent years.
Stephen Field, National Rural Unit Manager at SEPA, said: “Since 2012, SEPA has worked with land managers across 14 priority catchments where rural diffuse pollution was impacting bathing water, providing regulatory advice and requiring improvements in livestock and slurry management.
“Many rural land managers have since implemented measures over and above minimum regulatory requirements to address pollution issues arising from their farming activities. As a result, we’re seeing increasing evidence of bathing water quality improvements in these catchments.
“We’ll continue to engage with land managers and other relevant parties within the priority catchments to promote the importance of maintaining regulatory compliance to ensure bathing waters are maintained at a high standard.”
Tackling further impacts on Scotland’s bathing waters
Over the past decade, SEPA has ensured Scottish Water investment has been targeted to drive major improvements in water quality at locations that were not meeting the Sufficient standard.
Ayr (South Beach), which has now achieved four successive Good classifications after many years of Poor classification, has benefitted from significant sewerage system upgrades delivered by Scottish Water alongside investment by Scottish Government and the farming community to reduce rural diffuse pollution.
Microbial DNA source tracking analysis tools developed by SEPA has confirmed that bacteria from dog fouling and from gulls can also pollute bathing waters. Visitors can reduce this by picking up after their dog and not feeding gulls – human food is unhealthy for them and encourages unnatural behaviours.
Finally, the Scottish climate impacts water quality. Heavy rain can wash contaminants off both rural and urban land, together with overflows from sewage systems in affected areas. As such, bathing is not advised during, or 1-2 days after, heavy rainfall due to the risk to bathers’ health from short term water pollution. At 30 bathing waters, SEPA make daily water quality predictions and display these online and on electronic signs at beach locations.
Three bathing waters will have a Poor classification in 2025; Kinghorn (Harbour Beach), Lower Largo and Fisherrow Sands. SEPA are creating and implementing improvement plans at all these sites.
At Lower Largo, Scottish Water has had an on-going programme of work since the bathing water was designated for 2022 to understand the impact of their wastewater systems and identify improvements required.
At Kinghorn (Harbour Beach), SEPA are working with operators and businesses to reduce pollution in the Kinghorn Burn which discharges into the bathing water, while at Fisherrow, SEPA are considering the appropriate next steps after a single high result this summer skewed the classification to Poor this season.
