OBSERVATIONS ON CHANGES IN SEA COAST OF UNITED KINGDOM. 259 ~ 



The Committee recommend that their report be communicated to the 

 ■Geological Section at the Southport meeting of the Association, and that 

 it be published in the Annual Report. 



The Committee further recommend that copies of the report be sent 

 to the Admiralty, that their Lordships be informed of the valuable and 

 important information which has been obtained through their assistance 

 and co-operation, and that an offer be made to forward to them copies of 

 the report for distribution to the Coastguard stations if considered 

 desirable. 



In conclusion the Committee consider that the best thanks of the 

 Council are due to Mr. Parkinson for his report and to the various 

 officers in the Coastguard Service who have furnished the information 

 upon which it is based. 



Report to the Committee hy John Parkinson. 



The observations on which this report is based were sent to the British 

 Association by the Coastguards on forms supplied to them. These forms 

 were of two kinds. No. I. when filled in gives information as to the nature 

 of the coast reported on, the vertical range of ordinary spring tides, the 

 evidence for encroachment of the sea or for gain of the land, the artificial 

 causes influencing natural changes and details concerning the removal of 

 shingle, ifec. Form II. is used to record any changes of especial interest, 

 such as falls of cliff or the erection of new groynes. 



In this summary the observations are treated in oi'der round the coast, 

 beginning with the county of Wigtown and following on from point 

 to point in the direction taken by the hands of a watch. Ireland 

 is treated last, the same arrangement being adopted, beginning at 

 Galway Bay. 



Scotland. 



The reports received from Scotland — forty-eight in all — are for the 

 most part confined to the eastern coast ; the western, including the 

 Hebrides, being unrepresented as far south as the mouth of the Clyde. 



The distribution of the reports in the maritime counties and adjacent 

 islands is as follows : — Wigtown, 5 ; Ayr, 3 ; I. of Arran, 2 ; I. of 

 Bute, 1 ; Renfrew, 1 ; Orkney Isles, 2 ; Shetlands, 1 ; Caithness, 2 ; 

 Eastern Sutherland, 1 ; Eastern Cromarty, 1 ; Eastern Inverness, 1 ;. 

 Elgin, 3 ; Banff, 1 ; Aberdeen, 5 ; Kincardine, 6 ; Forfar, 5 ; Fife, 5 ; 

 Haddington, 2 ; Berwick, 1. 



The following alterations are recorded : — 



Some enci-oachment of the sea takes place in the neighbourhood of 

 Stranraer. Concrete walls now protect an endangered road ; a break- 

 water, piles, &c. have been built at the head of the loch and groynes 

 erected at Broadstone (IJ miles N.W. of Stranraer). 



No other change is on record until we reach the eastern coast of 

 Sutherland, where at Helmsdale, behind the west pier, there has been 

 some loss of land. This is now partially stayed by a breastwork of 

 wooden piles. No gravel is removed. In Banff a slight loss occurs to 

 the east of Portsoy Harbour, and stones &c. are constantly removed. 



The southern part of the Kincardine coast suffers loss in two adjacent 

 places : first at Gourdon through the shingle being removed for indus- 

 trial purposes, and the absence of groynes ; second in the neighbour- 

 hood of Johnshaven, where the loss occurs about 300 yards south of the 



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