The Plan

A short term plan (to cover the next 10 years or so) is currently being drawn up to try to slow down the effects of the coastal errosion and village flooding that is currently happening at an alarming rate. Below is an outline of what is currently on the table. A long term plan (to cover the next 50 to 100 years or so) will take much more consideration, planning and funding and an outline of this can be found under the THE FUTURE PLAN web page.

Protect the Village, Protect the A9, Protect the Future

The village has been divided into 4 ‘zones’ which are based on those agreed with the Community Council and Go Golspie. These zones consist of:

Zone 1 – Dunrobin Castle to where the Golspie burn meets the coast (Off Duke Street)
Zone 2 – Golspie burn to the Pier
Zone 3 – the Pier to the mouth of Loch Fleet at Littleferry
Zone 4 – the ‘hill’ or the area in front of Ben Bhraggie.

See the plan for each zone below:

ZONE 1 PLAN

Currently, the seawall and revetments in place which are nearly 150 years old are providing good protection to the castle and grounds. However, the footpath that runs from the Golspie burn to the castle along the coast and ‘Dairy Park’ is being washed away regularly at every high tide. This is bringing in lots of stones etc and is forming a natural ‘bank and berm’ (See FAQs) which is protecting the area to an extent. Therefore, it has been decided to let ‘Mother Nature’ take her course.

ZONE 2 PLAN

The Highland Council’s preferred option for this zone is to raise the existing seawall by 90cm for which there was a costed plan of £1.3M in 2019 with cost:benefit ratio of 2.04 (i.e. for every £1 spent, just over £2 expected damage to property averted, but this only takes into account direct damage to property & buildings, not financial loss to businesses or local economy). Build cost will almost certainly have doubled or trebled since then. This also does not cover the whole area (see map as the seawall stops at Campbell’s Lane down to the pier). However, Go Golspie Development Trust is pushing for their preferred option which is a £5 million ‘bank and berm revetments’ project (See FAQs) . This would cover the whole of the zone and provide protection for the village up to the pier. As this option was costed in 2023, it now seems that both projects are comparable. The ‘bank and berm’ option also offers further advantages as it could be extended in the future to encampass the area to the helipad; it would require no ongoing maintenance; it would be built on by ‘Mother Nature’ as deposits of stone and sand are already occuring in the area; the appearance is aesthetically pleasing. Go Golspie is managing this project.

ZONE 3 PLAN

The Highland Council have committed to replacing the railings by the harbour wall, repairing the beach access ramp and to repairing the pier by the end of 2024.

Sutherland Estates owns the coastline which runs from the helipad down along the Golf Course, Caravan Park, Go Kart Track and all the way to Littleferry. However, Golspie Golf Course are responsible for the coastline from the 5th Green to the area by the 7th Tee. They carried out work to remedy the destruction of some of this area after the devastating storms that occured in 2012 and 2014 bolstering it by putting in gabions and rock armour. They have just completed works to the 7th Tee after the storms and high tides of late 2023 and early 2024 damaged this area again, spending approximately £80K putting in more gabions and rock armour. After the storms of 2012 and 2014 the Highland Council, who had access at that time to manpower, money and materials, carried out works to replace the existing rock armour along the section from the helipad to the 5th fairway. Extensive damage occured again after the latest storms with many metres of fairway being lost. The coastal pathway that runs from Littleferry up to Golspie does not exist in places anymore. The Highland Council have stated that there is now no money in the budget to spend on this area. The Golspie Flood Action Group are trying to come up with some innovative solutions to try to facilitate and fund repairs to this area. This includes using new methods and hard engineering solutions to carry out trials which will be monitored to see if these are an acceptable short term solution to preserving what coastline is left. We are working with manufacturers and suppliers of this technology, which includes rock filter units and concrete matttresses to shore up the defences. We are also investigating beach nourishment ideas including the planting of old christmas trees which has been successful in other parts of the country (Fylde Sand Dunes Project) but this may be more suitable for parts of the Littleferry beach area. It is imperative that we work with all interested parties to ensure that any work completed does not have a detrimental effect on neighbouring coastlines etc.

The shoreline along the Go Kart Track has had considerable investment over the years by the club with the installation of rock armour and this is still ongoing. They are currently waiting on a survey of the area before further work is carried out and Golspie Flood Action Group are keen to work with the club and share any ideas, trials that may be suitable for this coastline.

The shoreline by the Caravan Park has been repaired by the new owners in recent months.

ZONE 4 PLAN

Currently, the village and surrounding area including the A9 heading North from Golspie suffers from excessive flooding during storm and heavy rain weather. This is due to surface water overwhelming the very old drainage system that was designed during the Victorian era when there were few houses residing on the slopes of Ben Bhraggie. Argo Terrace was particularly badly affected at the end of 2023 during storm Babet with some houses being flooded out. In addition, the A9 was impassable due to flooding for a number of hours around Nursery Road which leads to Backies. Since then, Golspie Flood Action Group has been active, engaging with the Scottish Flood Forum who visited the village to give advice on how to protect properties as well as carrying out free surveys on individual properties. Please see NEWS AND EVENTS for more information. Installing a water butt can also help and if everyone did this in the village, this would help the existing drainage system to cope! Please see WHAT CAN I DO? for more information.

Terms of Reference