Scots bathing water quality hits all-time high

Scotland’s principal environmental watchdog has reported that the highest recorded number of Scottish bathing waters will meet the top environmental standards in 2025.

According to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), 87% of the country’s 89 bathing waters will achieve Excellent or Good classifications with a further 10% designated as Sufficient.

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. 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 

  
  

SEPA highlighted the contribution of its work with Scotland’s farming community to improvements in bathing water classifications over the past decade.

Measures to reduce the risk of water pollution from rural diffuse pollution, SEPA said, have included increased slurry storage, fencing, alternative sources of livestock watering, and the planting of river bank “buffer zones” to move farming activities back from watercourses. The watchdog said many of these measures have been supported by Scottish government funding.

Rising tide: a decade's progress in bathing water quality