Coastal Erosion Sites

We had a visit from Neil Gordon from Envirocentre today (15/12/2022) to inspect the current condition of the dunes and coastal erosion sites. Envirocentre consulted on the installation of the Rock Armoury at the 2nd and the Geo-textile Sandbags at 11.

Neil was very happy with the current condition of the two sites and was happy to see a build up of sand and establishment of Marram and Sea Lyme grasses which help to stabilise the sand and protect the Geo-textile sandbags.

An area of concern and one that we will continue to monitor is the path that the Eil burn takes to reach the sea. Ideally, the burn should follow as straight a line as possible to avoid eroding the surrounding sand banks or at worse the coastal erosion site,

The photos below was taken after the recent heavy rainstorms in. Before the storms, the path of the Eil burn followed a fairly straight line out before snaking out to the right slightly. As you can see, the path of the burn now snakes out to the left and the force of the water has created quite a big channel.

The photos below was taken on the 6th of December, The flow from the Eil burn has slowed down but the high tides were pushing close to the mouth of the burn.

The photo below was taken on the day of Neil's visit (15/12/2022). The path of the burn has moved even more to the left and is creeping closer to the coastal erosion site. It's also clear how much the sand has built up and the depth that a clear flow from the mouth of the burn to the sea is required.

These photos show how dynamic the Eil Burn is and how quickly it can change. The dunes are the same as they are in a constant state of change in spite of all our efforts to stabilise them. The sand movement on Yellowcraigs beach and dunes is "cyclical" with sand blowing down the beach and gathering on the dunes. The sea can then claim sand from the beach and bring it out to sea. Sand is also displaced and then replenished the coastline, hence a cyclical dynamic.