The Longannet Power Station is located on the north side of the River Forth just to the east of Kincardine. The Power Station comprises an extensive area of land that includes the main power generating plant, coal tip, lagoons, ash tip, playing fields, rough grass, scrub and woodland. Due to safety and security restrictions much of the site is out of bounds to Club Members. However the areas, which are accessible, are of great interest. The sites biggest attraction is in the number of gulls present particularly during the winter months, with species of white-winged gulls occurring annually.

Scottish Power have laid down the following conditions for Club Members' access to Longannet Power Station and Valleyfield Lagoons.

Members wishing to visit the site must be registered, (via the Club Secretary) with Scottish Power, a list of current registered members will be held at the main gate security office.

To gain access to the site Members must stop at the main gate security office and produce their current membership card. The security officer will validate your card against the list held, you will then sign in and be issued with a visitor's pass, which must be returned on leaving the site.

Scottish Power reserve the right to refuse or terminate a visit to the site due to operational and or safety conditions.

Operational areas of the site must be avoided.

All visits to the site must be carried out during daylight hours.

Members must park their cars in the car park at the Contractors' Yard. No vehicles are to be driven out onto the lagoon area.

The gulls are attracted to the power station by the food supply, the ash pans and the flat grassy areas and roofs of the buildings, all of which make ideal roosting areas.

In winter the huge roosts of gulls on the tip and ash pans should always be checked for rarer gulls; Glaucous and Iceland Gulls are regular winter visitors. Woodcock Redpoll and Siskin can be found in the birch copses along the roadway and adjacent to the playing field and a nest box scheme is also run in the woodland areas. The seawall affords excellent views of divers, grebes and wildfowl on the estuary. The lagoons are best for waders in late spring and the autumn, notable species of past years being Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Ruff, Whimbrel, Greenshank and Wood and Green Sandpiper. Snow Bunting can often be found on the rough ground around the Lagoons during the winter months.

The power station uses a large quantity of river water as a cooling medium and it is necessary to filter this water before it can be used in the plant. Large revolving cylindrical screens carry out the filtering process at the pumping station immediately to the south of the main plant. During this process large quantities of small fish are extracted and initially placed in an open skip adjacent to the screens, before being disposed of on the tip or ash pans. The gulls can be observed on the roofs of the pump house and adjacent buildings, and also on the small jetty opposite, quite often they can also be found roosting on the grassy areas around the buildings.

The Longannet lagoon, which is accessed on foot from the contractors car park, is best observed from the southern side with the sun behind you, care should be taken when approaching the rim of the lagoon so as not to disturb the roosting birds.

For reasons of safety access onto the tip area is not allowed however this area can be well viewed from the surrounding area.