A beach in north-east Scotland is eroding rapidly owing to climate change, leaving a town at risk of flooding and its centuries-old golf links crumbling into the sea.
The Dynamic Coast report in 2021 studied the rate of erosion at Montrose and predicted that 120 metres would be lost over 40 years, an average of 3 metres a year.
People in Montrose are fearing the start of the storm season in autumn, as last year’s record-breaking storms caused the beach to erode 7 metres in the space of a year, more than 4 metres more than scientists predicted.
A report on behalf of Montrose Golf Links by EnviroCentre in December revealed that historically observed average rates of retreat are between 2.8–7.0 metres a year and that “observed trends in coastal erosion can be expected to continue, or indeed accelerate in response to future climate change”.
Montrose has a history of coastal erosion that can be measured through the loss of the golf links, founded more than 460 years ago. The original sixth tee disappeared in 1994 and the third tee was moved away from the edge in 2017 but is now also gone. The sea has advanced 70 metres in the past 30 years.