The seas coming in

gwaithcoed · 30 Jan 2006

At the end of 2003 this popped out of the sand dunes on Black Rock Sands near Porthmadog, part of the shore defences from World War 2.
This photo was taken17th Jan 2004

This photo was 12 months later Jan 2005

This was taken today, it appears the sea has taken back what it had lost after the war plus a little bit more.

I hope it stops there as I only live about half a mile away as the crow flies and I'd sooner go down to the beach rather than the beach come to me.

Alan

Waka · 30 Jan 2006

Alan

Are they still doing that to holiday homes in Wales?

Surprizing how much gets taken away in such a short space of time. We have a similar problem with the cliffs along the Dorset coast.

StevieB · 30 Jan 2006

Nice series of photos, but how much is actually due to wind erosion and how muc hto the sea? Looks like fairly dry, fine sand but as the first two dont show the sea its difficult to tell.

Steve.

gwaithcoed · 30 Jan 2006

StevieB wrote

but how much is actually due to wind erosion and how muc hto the sea?

Unfortunatley it all seems to be the sea.

When we moved down to Wales about 10 years ago, during the summer you could walk off the beach up a gentle slope into the dunes. However during our first winter down here we were amazed as to how much of this gentle slope was lost due to the tides leaving towering vertical sides to the dunes. We were then equally amazed during the following summer to see the sand returned by the wind to restore the gentle slopes that we were used to as holiday makers.

Over the last 4 years this returning of the sand dosn't seem to be taking place and more of the dunes are being lost year on year.

Alan.

devonwoody · 31 Jan 2006

Well Alan the sand has gone somewhere else!

Perhaps it will come back this year, I haven't heard of any export business in sand to Mars so you should be alright.

Jorden · 31 Jan 2006

Nah you've all got it wrong!

The coastline is exactly the same now as it was 3 years ago. What is clearly happening here is the bunker having been built to fight a foe comming up the beach has become bored waiting, and decided to go look for them. :shock:

Dennis