Preferred option for Golspie sea defence scheme is £5 million 'bank and berm revetments'
The group behind a sea defence scheme for Golspie has revealed that a £5 million 'bank and berm revetments' is the preferred option recommended by experts.
A community engagement event was held in the village last Saturday to inform local people about the project.
Go Golspie development trust has been leading the project and representatives from the Highlands and Islands Climate Hub were also present at the event.
Revetments are sloping structures built on embankments or shorelines, along the base of cliffs or in front of sea walls to absorb and dissipate wave energy.
Go Golspie development manager Catherine Moodie said around 80 people attended the community engagement day.
She said: "There was a lot of positive feedback about the preferred option of the bank and berm revetments and an understanding of the process that has taken place to get to this point."
Other options included doing nothing; raising the height of the existing sea wall; repairing an offshore breakwater; replenishing the beach; and replenishing the beach with groynes.
Highland Council is taking forward the option of raising the sea wall and has applied for funding from Scottish Government funding.
Mrs Moodie said the bank and berm revetments would be similar to the stone defences built 150 years ago below Dunrobin Castle.
The advantages of the scheme are that it would be a one-off captial cost with little or no ongoing maintenance and could be combined with the seawall option. However the scheme is not the "most aesthetic" option.
The flood defence group now intends to undertake further community consultation on the preferred option including the production of plans and models, and to work towards applying for regulatory planning approvals and Marine Scotland consents.
Henrietta Marriott of the flood group said thanks were due to Golspie Heritage Society for providing the archive photographs of flooding events in Golspie that were shown on a loop on a screen at the community engagement event.
