Alloa Inch
Alloa Inch (Scottish Gaelic: innis - island or meadow) is an island in the tidal reaches of the River Forth to the south of Alloa, just before the river opens out into the Firth of Forth.
In the 1700's the Inch was a mud bank covered in salt marsh and flooded at spring tides. In 1800 the island was surveyed, and plans put in place to build a large embankment round its periphery to keep the water out and produce fertile farmland. Subsequently the island was occupied and farmed for 180 years. Due to subsidence caused by nearby coal mining, the flood defences were breached. The farm was abandoned in 1982. The land once again consists of reed beds and salt marshes.
There are derelict farm buildings still on the island, and some abandoned vessels are parked on its eastern shore.
The Scottish Wildlife Trust has managed the island as a nature reserve since 1996. The smaller islet of Tullibody Inch lies just upstream to the west.
Tullibody Inch
Tullibody Inch is an islet in the River Forth. It takes its name from the nearby town of Tullibody and has a peak elevation of just 16ft (almost 5 metres) above sea level.
As with Alloa Inch, the islet was for a time used as farmland, but has become flooded due to mining subsidence. It is now part of the Firth of Forth Sites of Special Scientific Interest, which also includes nearby Alloa Inch and the John Muir Country Park, in West Barns, near Dunbar.
The Scottish Wildlife Trust owns and manages the island as a nature reserve. The area is now important for its extensive reed beds and for nationally important numbers of wintering wildfowl and wading birds.