We recently visited the beautiful Moray Coast, staying in the seaside town of Lossiemouth. We had read that the series of storms we’ve had this winter, together with high tidal surges, have been eroding the massive dunes that protect the town. George had also read that the dunes themselves were partly constructed out of old railway carriages.
We had already seen that this year’s storms, which have tended to be driven by easterlies and north-easterlies rather than south-westerlies, have been changing the coast line near Peterhead and St Fergus, creating cliff-like drops to the beach and exposing old midden dumps. But what we saw at Lossiemouth was erosion and accretion on a different scale.
We spent a day and a half there, walking east to Kingston on the first day, and west to Covesea Lighthouse on the morning of the second day, before we had to head back.
Heading east, we could see how the storms had revealed the remains of the old harbour, previously buried by the sand. The once-gently sloping dunes now had near-vertical faces.
But further along, the storms had dumped more than they had taken away …
On the west beach, the tide was out and the wet sand shone in the April sun.
Ahead of us, a man picked up one of the dozens of tyre and rolled it along the beach for his dogs to chase.
Whether washed up to the east or west, most of the tyres bore evidence of reuse as fenders on harbour walls or the sides of ships, Most had holes and some still had bits of chain or rope attached.
The shoes, as always, tugged at my heartstrings.
Videos created by George. Sound effects from Pixabay.
