Burrow Head
Headland · Salt water · in The Solway Firth
The southern tip of the Machars, a low cliffed headland with rock ledges below and deep water off the point. The most exposed ground in Galloway and the only place on it where the water is deep at the rod tip.
Safety: tides and being cut off — can cause serious injury or death. 2 more points apply here.
FishingHQ describes what this place is, not whether you may fish it. Access, permits and who to ask.
What you can catch here
Documented at this place, grouped by how you would be fishing, with how strongly the sources support each one. This is what has been written down, not a forecast, and being listed is never permission to fish.
From the shore · 6
Conger eelRegular local target1 placeBurrow HeadOver headland
Atlantic mackerelSeasonal1 placeBurrow HeadOver headlandAround Jun–Sept
PollackSeasonal1 placeBurrow HeadOver headlandAround Jun–Sept- Bull hussRecorded here1 placeBurrow HeadOver headland
European sea bassRecorded here1 placeBurrow HeadOver headland- Small-spotted catsharkRecorded here1 placeBurrow HeadOver headland
What these strengths mean
- Regular local target
- Fishing sources describe this as a normal local target here, not merely as caught.
- Seasonal
- Well supported, and concentrated in part of the year rather than spread through it.
- Recorded here
- At least one credible public account of this species being caught here. That is all it means.
- How breadth is counted
- A fish documented at six marks is shown as six marks: breadth never raises the strength on its own. A fishery account describes the fishing; a recorded catch reports one specific catch. How evidence is weighed.
Fish documented nearby, not here
Nothing below has been documented at Burrow Head itself. Each one has been documented at a named place on the same ground, and the places are listed with it. Treat this as what the water around here holds rather than as a catch list for this mark.
Widely documented on this ground
Documented at three or more neighbouring places, fished a way this place is also fished. That is a pattern about the ground rather than about any one mark, and it is the closest this site comes to saying you will probably meet a fish somewhere nothing has been written about.
From the shore
- European flounder — documented at Maryport harbour and promenade; Mersehead Sands; Brighouse Bay (+2 more)
- European plaice — documented at Fleet Bay; Maryport harbour and promenade; Brighouse Bay
Also documented at neighbouring places
One or two accounts each, on the ground around here. Enough to know the fish is caught in these waters; not enough to say anything about this place.
From the shore
- Starry smooth-hound — documented at Wigtown Bay
- Atlantic cod — documented at Maryport harbour and promenade; Balcary Bay
- Whiting — documented at Maryport harbour and promenade; Balcary Bay
- Saithe — documented at Maryport harbour and promenade
- Tub gurnard — documented at Maryport harbour and promenade
- Ballan wrasse — documented at The Mull of Galloway
- Dab — documented at Balcary Bay
- Thornback ray — documented at Mersehead Sands
- Turbot — documented at Fleet Bay
How people fish it
Practised here: Sea fishing.
Methods the sources name for this ground. Each one is explained in full on its own page.
- Float fishing
Suspending a bait at a controlled depth beneath a buoyant indicator — the most visual, most controllable and most widely applicable method in angling.
- Spinning
Casting an artificial lure and retrieving it so that it moves like something alive — the most direct form of lure fishing.
- Ledgering
Fishing a bait on the bottom held by a weight, with no float — the simplest way to fish at distance, in depth, or in wind.
- Feathering and multi-lure traces
A string of small lures on droppers, worked in the water column — how most people in Britain and Ireland catch their first sea fish, and the method most likely to catch far more than anybody intended.
The ground and the water
- The ground
- The southern tip of the Machars, a low cliffed headland with rock ledges below and deep water off the point. The most exposed ground in Galloway and the only place on it where the water is deep at the rod tip.
- Exposure
- Fully open south and west, with nothing between it and the Isle of Man.
- Depth
- Deep off the point, which is what separates it from the bays either side.
Through the year
Peaks in summer; the ground fishes through the year.
The months the sources attach to each species here. Where a species carries no season it is listed underneath rather than assumed to run through the year.
| Species | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlantic mackerel — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September. | ||||||||||||
| Pollack — seasonal, recorded in June, July, August, September. |
Recorded here with no season stated: Conger eel, Bull huss, European sea bass, Small-spotted catshark.
Safety
Tides and being cut off — Can cause serious injury or death
Ledges, skerries and boulder ground below a cliff are reached over rock that the flood covers, and on a coast with a large range that happens quickly. The way back is a scramble rather than a walk, so it becomes unusable while there is still dry rock to stand on, and swell breaking over the covered ground removes it earlier than the tide table suggests.
What reduces it: Work out the way back before going down, and set the time you will leave from the tide rather than from the fishing. Treat the first wave that reaches the return route as the signal to take it, not as a warning that there is time left. Do not go down onto low ground alone on a rising tide, and carry a means of calling for help on the person.
Worse when:
- Spring tides, when the range and the rate of covering are greatest
- Any swell, which breaks over ground the tide has not yet reached
- Onshore wind and low pressure, which put the water above the predicted level
- Wet rock and weed, which make a return route slower on the way back than it was on the way down
Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death
Anglers are swept from rock platforms by individual large sets rather than by the average sea, which means the conditions that kill people frequently look survivable for the twenty minutes before they arrive. Wet rock, weed and a swell running onto a sloping platform remove any chance of recovery.
What reduces it: Watch the water for a full set cycle before committing to a position, know the escape route and how long it takes, wear a flotation aid rather than carry one, never fish a platform alone, and treat a rising swell forecast as a reason not to go rather than a reason to be careful.
Cold water shock — Can cause serious injury or death
UK coastal and inland water is cold enough for most of the year to trigger the involuntary gasp and the loss of swimming ability that decides most immersion deaths, and it does so within the first minute, long before hypothermia is relevant.
What reduces it: Wear a buoyancy aid rather than carry one, carry a means of calling for help on the person rather than in a bag, and plan on the assumption that an unplanned entry into the water is survivable only if somebody knows immediately.
Rules and access
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. Sea angling in Scotland is not rod-licensed, but access rights under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code carry responsibilities, and harbour, local authority, marine conservation and fisheries measures all apply and all change. Check the current position with the Marine Directorate, the harbour or local authority and the land manager before going.
Who holds the answer:
- The Scottish Government Marine Directorate, for sea fisheries measures in Scottish waters.
- The harbour authority or land manager, for access to the structure or the ground.
- The local authority, for shellfish harvesting classification.
- The relevant national fisheries administration for the shore concerned — different bodies apply on the English and Scottish sides of the same firth
- The relevant salmon fishery board or migratory fisheries authority, for anything concerning salmon and sea trout
- The local authority environmental health service, for shellfish harvesting classification and public health closures
- The coastguard, for tidal and safety information, and as the service that will be called if somebody is cut off
- Local clubs and long-established practitioners, whose knowledge of channel positions is operative safety information rather than a courtesy
Nearby fishing
Other publicly documented places within about 40 km, by distance. Positions are approximate public geography and are never exact marks.
- The Isle of Whithorn — 2–5 km · Harbour wall
- Wigtown Bay — 10–25 km · Bay
- Fleet Bay — 10–25 km · Bay
- Brighouse Bay — 10–25 km · Bay
- Kirkcudbright Bay — 10–25 km · Estuary
- The Mull of Galloway — 25–40 km · Headland
- Luce Bay and Sandhead — 25–40 km · Bay
- Port Logan — 25–40 km · Harbour wall
Sources for this place
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Long-running published description of British sea angling practice by region, ground type and named mark.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated public descriptions of which places are conventionally fished and how, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship, and not relied on for access, permission or any current rule.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- British Sea Fishing: Scottish shore marks — British Sea Fishing (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Which species are fished for at each named Scottish shore mark and how the fishing divides between the winter and the summer half of the year.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.