Scottish Owl Centre

Scottish Owl Centre The Scottish Owl Centre is the home to Scotland's largest collection of owls.
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Located in Polkemmet County Park, it is both a fun and educational day out for the whole family.

Founders and owners of the Scottish Owl Centre, Rod and Niccy Angus have an important announcement: 'As we approach reti...
24/06/2025

Founders and owners of the Scottish Owl Centre, Rod and Niccy Angus have an important announcement: 'As we approach retirement, we're starting to look for the right person or people to take over the ownership and management of the Scottish Owl Centre. It has been a labour of love - for owls and for people - for the past 25 years and we want to ensure our legacy is continued. We're looking for an individual or couple with the vision, energy and resources to maintain and develop our unique blend of accessible inspiring education and serious owl conservation and research. Owl expertise is not necessarily a prerequisite since our expert keepers will keep you right! If any of our wonderful followers and supporters know anyone who might be willing and able to take up the challenge, they should contact us via the form on our website www.scottishowlcentre.com so we can send details of our proposal. The right person is out there somewhere!'

Trystan meeting and greeting with Sequoia the Barred Owl last week. She's in moult so off flying display duties but like...
16/06/2025

Trystan meeting and greeting with Sequoia the Barred Owl last week. She's in moult so off flying display duties but likes to get out and about in the centre to see what's going on. They both got a surprise though as there was a baby rabbit chomping on grass on the path in front of our Snowy Owl aviary! Of all the species we thought we might breed in the owl centre, rabbits was not on the list! Sequoia couldn't believe her eyes, she'd never seen a rabbit before! It only ran away when Trystan stepped a few feet from it, then it darted under the back gate and out into the park. We think our owls need some kind of talk about what it means to be a bird of prey, clearly the rabbits are mocking them! 🤷🤦🦉🐰

❗Dug, our tiny Burrowing Owl with a mountain of personality, is here with a note for our visitors today (Sat 14th June)❗...
14/06/2025

❗Dug, our tiny Burrowing Owl with a mountain of personality, is here with a note for our visitors today (Sat 14th June)❗

The café at Polkemmet, which operates as a separate business, is scheduled to be closed today. This means that there will be no available café facilities within the park.

Customers may wish to bring their own lunches (like Dug, here! 😜🐭) or there are nearby Services, as well as a couple of nearby small towns, which are approx. a 10-15 min drive away from our location.

It was time to check the Long-eared Owl nestbox to ring/band the owlets today. Little dude has attitude 😱😆
01/06/2025

It was time to check the Long-eared Owl nestbox to ring/band the owlets today. Little dude has attitude 😱😆

'It doesn't get this warm where Siberian Eagle Owls live, so you gotta make the most of the rays!' 😎
22/05/2025

'It doesn't get this warm where Siberian Eagle Owls live, so you gotta make the most of the rays!' 😎

Our newly arrived Philippine Scops Owl, Otus megalotis, displayed his mega-lotis or 'large-ears' this afternoon. They ar...
01/05/2025

Our newly arrived Philippine Scops Owl, Otus megalotis, displayed his mega-lotis or 'large-ears' this afternoon. They are of course just feathers as the real ears are on the side of the head behind the eye, like ours. 🤓🦉

While we had our two day 'heatwave' in Scotland, our recently paired MackInder's Eagle Owls declared a truce to sit toge...
01/05/2025

While we had our two day 'heatwave' in Scotland, our recently paired MackInder's Eagle Owls declared a truce to sit together in the one square metre of sun in the corner of the aviary, and even the goth melanistic Barn Owl, Jet, came out of his bedroom in wonder at the unusual weather. Don't worry Jet, it'll be cold and gloomy as you like it by the weekend 😛

New arrival! Yesterday we received this wonderful male Philippine Scops Owl, Otus megalotis, from Chester Zoo. Bringing ...
30/04/2025

New arrival! Yesterday we received this wonderful male Philippine Scops Owl, Otus megalotis, from Chester Zoo. Bringing our total to 51 species and sub species of owl at the centre, we'll let him settle in for a few days before moving him to one of the public aviaries. 🦉😃

Our flying display arena is back in action. With a completely new roof and new lighting, we have been doing displays aga...
06/04/2025

Our flying display arena is back in action. With a completely new roof and new lighting, we have been doing displays again over the weekend. Some of our birds need some time to get used to the new lights but others don't care. In Trystan's display this afternoon Lulu the White Faced Owl did a few flights then basically refused to move any further, then Hopi the American Barn Owl decided to check out the new roof and lights in new places from the vantage point of the imitation trees and refused to come back without a large bribe. Thankfully Zeus the Eurasian Eagle Owl saved the display and performed very well (he likes his food and doesn't really care about the surroundings - apart from that music video filming some years back, he didn't like the fog machine so refused to move then haha). Back to training school for some of our birds this week! Oh, of course now we have a watertight roof we get a week of sunshine and temps up to 18 C 😄

Yesterday work finally started on replacing our flying arena roof after Storm Eowyn ripped four huge panels off and dama...
25/03/2025

Yesterday work finally started on replacing our flying arena roof after Storm Eowyn ripped four huge panels off and damaged the rest of the structure. The whole roof has to come off and be replaced, taking two weeks (hopefully no longer). This means we have no flying displays for two weeks as well. With no good time to do this kind of thing, and with the Easter busy period ahead, we have to do it now. Unfortunately this means breeding season is under way and the disturbance from the noise of the building work can be stressful for some of the birds. So the decision was made to pull the owlet from the American Barn Owls and hand rear it the rest of the way. The parents were already disturbed with the work starting right behind their aviary yesterday morning. The owlet is big and healthy, though it did take Trystan until midnight to convince it to eat. Eggs were removed from the other American Barn female incubating and from the Ashy Faced Owls, but the eggs proved to be infertile anyway. There's a fair chance these birds will try for another clutch in a fortnight so hopefully the building work will be done by then.

❕Important Notice for Visitors❗Our Flying Arena roof is finally scheduled for its repair! 🥳 The works are due to begin t...
22/03/2025

❕Important Notice for Visitors❗

Our Flying Arena roof is finally scheduled for its repair! 🥳 The works are due to begin this Monday (24th March) and will be continuing for at least 2 weeks. There's a lot involved, as due to our Arena not being watertight these past weeks, damage has spread to other parts of the structure, adding to the repair requirements.

This does mean that, during the course of the roofing work, we will not be able to host our daily Flying Displays. There will be a lot of disruption and the security/weatherproof quality of the Arena will be compromised as, at points, the roof will be missing entirely!

During this period, the Centre will be remaining open and we will be hosting static presentations instead, with our Keepers bringing owls out on the glove and giving talks in our Education Area. This will also offer the opportunity for question & answer sessions with our Keepers! 🦉

We ask for our visitors' understanding during this period of disruption, and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your consideration. It's less than ideal, but should allow us to resume 'business as normal' in time for the busy Easter holiday period.

Our Flying Arena roof is an essential repair and is long overdue being completed. We will be very glad to see the back of our recent troubles once our new roof has been fitted! 🙂

This year our owls are laying eggs a week or two earlier than last year, and our Barking Owls are well into incubation. ...
10/03/2025

This year our owls are laying eggs a week or two earlier than last year, and our Barking Owls are well into incubation. Their owlet last year was the first bred in Scotland and only the second time the species has been bred outside Australia! Fingers crossed we may have a hatch in around 8 days time 🙂

Address

The Scottish Owl Centre, Polkemmet Country Park
Bathgate
EH470AD

Telephone

+441501228184

Website

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