What makes this small park matter is a single fact of botany: Çamburnu is recorded in the world literature as the place where the Scots pine comes down to the sea, in this country and anywhere else. The Directorate General of Nature Conservation and National Parks describes that as a very important characteristic and argues it makes the site a natural asset to be protected.
The park was registered on 11 July 2011 for its biological diversity and its landscape. It covers about 5.3 hectares. It adjoins the Çamburnu quarter of the Sürmene district and sits on the Trabzon-Rize road, on the right-hand side heading towards Rize. Capacity is given as 1,120 visitors and 26 vehicles.
Botanically the park belongs to the Colchic sector of the Euro-Siberian flora. Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) is the dominant tree and oriental spruce comes second, over an understorey of alder, sweet chestnut, two hornbeams, wild cherry, Pontic and yellow rhododendron, hazel, sessile oak, bay laurel, cornelian cherry, tree heath, fig and ivy. The pine of this coast is not settled taxonomy either: some botanists treat it as a species of its own and have given it names such as Pinus pontica, Pinus kochiana and Pinus armena.
Field surveys counted 54 bird species, 12 mammals and 4 reptiles, all assessed by the IUCN as of least concern, along with nine amphibians, eight of which have no IUCN assessment. Jackal, badger and marten share the surroundings with roe deer, squirrels, shrews and mice. The coast road runs beneath the park in a tunnel of about 615 metres; the turning comes some 100 metres after the tunnel's end, and the park has entrances on its north and south sides. It is 7 kilometres from Sürmene and 34 from Rize, and Trabzon airport is 33 kilometres away.
- Designated
- 11.07.2011
Entry fee
- Black Sea group 2 · category 1 · Per person
- 65 ₺
When to go
- Climate
- Across Trabzon as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 7.3 °C in February to 23.5 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in October (113 mm) and lightest in July (37 mm). Long-term means for 1927-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
