Posted: Fri Jan 13, 17 8:22 am Post subject: Nefyn.
Nefyn by the sea? Or should that be Nefyn nearly in the sea?
We live in the small village of Morfa Nefyn situated on the beautiful Lleyn Peninsular in North West Wales. Earlier in the week my wife and I drove to the nearby town of Nefyn and walked along from the slip way to the far end of the beach.
It was what can only be described as a brisk day, with a strongish wind blowing and the sun gallantly trying to shine. We managed to do just over six and a half thousand steps, which not only looked good on the pedometer but should have done us a bit of good too.
The views and sea were dramatic to look at but what was more worrying, was how the coastal erosion in the area seems to be gathering pace and getting progressively worse year on year. In the next few years, I can see quite a few houses getting more than the fabulous sea views that they enjoy now. I fear they'll be in it.
Anyway, enjoy our walk, we definitely did !
gz
Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 8897 Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
Posted: Fri Jan 13, 17 11:11 am Post subject:
How is it affecting Porth Dinllaen? ( the hamlet by the sea in the later pictures)
the erosion looks very like the coast near whitby , that seems to go in lumps rather than steadily . enjoy it while one can is the only option when the beach is heading for the garden.
i spose unless you live on hard rock an eroding coast can be sea view to no house in a few decades. somewhere else is going from sea view to short drive to the beach.
if i do ever move to the coast i recon 50 m vertical and what looks like a couple of centuries of erosion inland would be sensible. the paper i was reading a while ago regarding the weather/sea levels the last time the global average temp was the one we are rapidly approaching was a bit of a wake up re my idea that living at the top of the beach would be nice. hansen et al reckoned that waves that could throw cottage size boulders 50 m up and quite a distance inland were happening and 250mph superstorms were a seasonal norm in the atlantic so even scaled down a bit for UK landfall having the sea at the end of the garden isn't necessarily smart.
as to sea level rise too close to and not much above high tide isn't smart as a long term investment.
(1 to 3m as a global average is a conservative estimate for the next 100yrs if the melt rate is as it is now and it remains constant rather than being uneven, which seems likely meaning most of that could be a decadal event, however sea level rise is not even with more in the north than the south rather than averaged out ).
if you add a probable rise to existing and potential storm surge effects a bit inland and uphill a bit seems even more sensible.
We nearly bought a 10 acre smallholding here on the coast about 30 years ago. Thank goodness we didn't, because about 15 years ago, suddenly overnight it became a six acre smallholding. A four acre field quite literally dropped into the sea.
Porth Dinllaen has more or less been OK so far but the sandy cliffs directly behind the houses continue to erode. Its not the sea that's causing it, it's the heavy rain causing the landslides. The houses are very much under threat and I for one, wouldn't fancy sleeping in them. Its a disaster waiting to happen.
Erosion does tend to happen is spurts as you say Dpack. A wet winter can cause a lot of trouble. One house fell into the see at Babbacombe a couple of years back; it was supposed to be good for another couple of decades. The beach was still closed at one end when I was there last summer.
I remember in the very early 1960s there was a wet winter, don't think it was to do with the snow of 62/63, the blue slipper clay under Ventnor on the Isle of Wight suddenly slipped. There was a step in the road about a foot high, and the back of a hotel was suddenly separated from the front. The scar is still there and can be seen as a green section of the town where nothing is rebuilt.
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