Alarm: The city is about to disappear

 

Scotland
Here, the sea swallows a Scottish town – meter by metre
"Give the city three years, then I think it will be under water"

Christina Nordh

Published 20.32

Climate change is threatening the beach at Montrose on the Scottish east coast. Photo: Andy Thompson / Alamy / Stella Pictures

The sea is taking a big bite out of the Scottish east coast.

In little Montrose, erosion is galloping.

Seven meters of the shoreline disappeared last year alone.

The small community 4.5 miles north of Dundee has seen countless invasions.

During the Viking Age, Danes were responsible for the destruction both once and several times.

Today, another danger threatens: climate change.

Because of them, the beach is swept away and the 460-year-old golf course falls into the sea meter by meter, writes the British Guardian. On the golf course, the sixth hole disappeared in 1994 and the fourth hole was moved from the edge in 2017 – but is now gone. Here, 70 meters have disappeared in the last 30 years.

In 2021 came the Dynamic Coast report, a study on how fast the erosion in Montrose is. According to the report, 120 meters of coastline would be lost in 40 years, with an average loss of three meters per year.

Now the residents fear the coming storm season. Last year, roughly four meters more than that average was washed away.

 

70 meters of the beach in Montrose has disappeared in the last 30 years. Photo: Alamy Stock Photo

According to an Enviro Center report from December last year, commissioned by Montrose Golf Links, revealed that historical statistics show 2.8-7 meters per year are being lost and that "observed trends in coastal erosion are expected to continue or accelerate as a result of future climate change".

Last November, Montrose's seafront collapsed during high tide after Storm Babet moved in. During Babet's ravages alone, three meters of the beach disappeared. A month later came the storm Garrett.

- I was born and raised in Montrose and I don't think any of us can remember anything like the storms we had. Were they hundred year storms? Will it be another hundred years? Probably not. This is climate change, David Wood, who sits on the municipality's coastal erosion group, told the Guardian.

The sea is now creeping ever closer to the settlements in the small town with just under 12,000 inhabitants and floods are threatening.

The local authorities' investigations showed that there is an urgent need to restore the eroded dunes at Montrose Bay - otherwise there is a risk of "flood corridors" being opened to the city's residential buildings.

- I would give Montrose a maximum of three more years and then I think the city is under water. The protection is giving way if nothing is done, city councilor Tommy Stewart said last December.

According to the Enviro Centre's report, 170 meters of coastline could be lost due to erosion and flooding in south Montrose as early as 2100.