UK ECN site. Glensaugh is one of two terrestrial ECN sites currently managed by the James Hutton Institute.

Glensaugh Research station is 35 miles south west of Aberdeen, NE Scotland (NGR NO 671783), on the edge of the Grampian hills and covers over 1100 hectares. The dominant cover is semi-natural vegetation, and there is a small amount of woodland (5ha) and some short term and permanent grassland (150ha). Much of the ECN monitoring is carried out towards the northern boundary of the research station in the small upland catchment of the Birnie Burn. Winters can be severe and snow may lie in patches until late March.

The target sampling site is located at an altitude of 300m on heather dominated (Calluna vulgaris) moorland interspersed with patches of blaeberry (Vaccinium myrtillus). It has a westerly aspect and straight slopes of up to 20 degrees. The soil is predominantly freely draining humus iron podzol of the Strichen Series. The water chemistry sampling point, flume and in-stream measurements are made on the Birnie Burn at an altitude of 240m. The catchment area above the sampling point is around 100ha. Precipitation and atmospheric chemistry samples are collected adjacent to the stream at a similar altitude.