When you think of beautiful coastal landscapes, you may think of picturesque sandy beaches and clear blue waters in places such as Mexico, Greece, and Thailand. The UK may not seem like the place to have the same type of beaches, but in the Isles of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall, there are coastlines with clear turquoise waters and light sandy beaches comparable to the Caribbean.
These kinds of beaches, including the more well-known pebbly shingle beaches like in Brighton, come from having a uniquely diverse coastal landscape due to one of the longest coastlines compared to others in Europe. Let's look at the many examples of famous coastal landscapes in the UK.
Coasts in the UK
There are many coasts in UK; a few famous ones are Seven Sisters in East Sussex, Dungeness in Kent, Porthcurno in Cornwall, and Blackpool Sands in Devon.
Coasts are the part of the land that meets the sea.
As the UK is an island, it has a close relationship with the coast. There are certain precautions and care taken to look after coasts. Mainly how they are managed can be important to the safety of nearby people.
Fig. 1 - Tean from St Martin's, Scilly
Coasts are very important to the UK for two main reasons:
- People's livelihoods - many seaside towns need and thrive on tourism and recreation.
- They are home to wildlife, marine life and plant life.
Coastal Management
Coasts are places where people and wildlife live, so protecting the coastlines from human disruption and erosion is vital. There are three types of management, hard engineering strategies, soft engineering strategies, and managed retreats.
Hard engineering
Hard engineering is using man-made structures to stop or reduce erosion. An example could be large concrete walls along the coastline called sea walls.
Soft engineering
Soft engineering is using natural materials to stop or reduce erosion. Compared with hard engineering, soft engineering tries to work with the environment. For example, dune nourishment is when marram grass is grown on sand dunes to stabilise them and trap sand to build them up.
Managed retreats
Managed retreats are when there is controlled flooding of low-lying coastal areas, which can help grow salt marshes that can become a natural defence.
In Mappleton by the Holderness coast in East Riding of Yorkshire, there had been intense erosion of 2 meters per year. In 1991, almost 2 million pounds were used for the hard engineering of two groynes and a revetment to stop beaches from being eroded and protect the cliffs.
Groynes are structures built perpendicularly from the coast to the sea to stop sediments from being carried along the coast.
Revetments are structures built on banks or cliffs to absorb the energy of waves.
This was effective and stopped the erosion as the groynes prevented sediments from being carried along the coast, and the revetment shielded the cliffs from the waves.
Fig. 2 - Mappleton by the Holderness coast in East Riding of Yorkshire
Take a look at our Coastal Management explanation for more detailed explanations.
Coastlines of the UK
The United Kingdom is an island nation that has 19,491 miles of coastline. It is made up of all the coastlines of the islands of the UK, with the main coastlines being the coastline of the main island of Great Britain and the coastline of the northeast coast of the island of Ireland.
Coastlines are the land along a coast.
The UK coastlines are largely accessible to the public, so you may have walked along them to enjoy the many views of the land and the sea.
Coastal landscapes in the UK examples
There are many intriguing coastal landscape examples in the UK. Coastal landscapes have distinctive natural features called coastal landforms. There are two types of coastal landforms, erosional landforms and depositional landforms. Erosional landforms are created by erosion; depositional landforms are made from the sea losing energy and depositing material. There are famous coastal landscapes in the UK whose main features are the dramatic shapes and forms of coastal landforms.
Erosional landforms
The process of erosion can create and shape different landforms along the coastline. The coastline isn't always made of the same materials and erodes at different paces. This can be seen in headlands and bays; the waves erode the softer rock made with sand or clay and make bays. The harder rock that's more resistant to erosion stick out into the sea, which becomes the headland.
In a headland, caves, arches, stacks and stumps are common features. The erosion of the headland creates caves, and when the cave becomes bigger and breaks through the headland, it creates arches. When the arch becomes wide, and the roof of the arch becomes too heavy, it collapses to leave stacks. The stack is eroded at the base and collapses to form stumps.
Fig. 3 - an example of arches in Scotland
Erosion also shapes cliffs. If it's made of hard, more resistant rock, it creates a steep cliff; if the cliff is made of soft, less resistant rock, it creates cliffs with a gradual slope. At the foot of the cliff is a wavecut platform, a gently sloping surface left by the erosion of the cliffs.
Depositional landforms
Depositional landforms are created through the waves losing energy and leaving material on the coastline. Beaches are a well-known form of depositional landform; they are made up of eroded material carried and deposited by the sea. Spits are a stretch of beach found at one end of the coastline, jutting out into the sea from the land. If a spit grows across a bay and the headlands join together, it becomes a bar.
Fig. 4 - Aerial view of Calshot Spit
Visit the explanation about Coastal Landforms to learn more about the various landforms.
Famous coastal landscapes in the UK
There are many famous coastal landscapes in the UK. Let's look at a few that have distinctive and interesting landforms.
Old Harry Rocks
Old Harry Rocks is situated in Dorset on the Isle of Purbeck and are chalk formations of a stack and a stump. They are part of the Jurrasic coast, a world heritage that has rock formations from the Jurrasic periods. Old Harry Rocks was an eroded headland, leaving a stuck and a stump. Old Harry is the furthest away single stuck, with the name rumoured to have come from the local pirate or the devil.
Fig. 5 - Old Harry Rocks
Chesil Beach
Chesil Beach, like Old Harry Rocks, is also situated in Dorset along the Jurrasic coast. It is a bar that was once a spit that joined the Isle of Portland and created a lagoon that is now called The Fleet. It is made up of pebbles and shingles and was the scene of many shipwrecks during the age of sail due to the currents and the way the winds blew.
Fig. 6 - Chesil Beach and the Fleet Lagoon
The Green Bridge of Wales
The Green Bridge of Wales lies on the Southwest coast of Pembrokeshire. Made from limestone, it is an arch formed from the erosion of the cliff. It is known for its dramatic rock formations, and the name "The Green Bridge of Wales" comes from the vegetation that grows on top of the arch.
Fig. 7 - Green Bridge of Wales
Facts about coasts in the UK
Living on an island with such a long coastline, there are many facts about the coast in the UK. Let's look at some quick facts.
- No one lives far from the sea; in fact, no one lives no more than 80 miles from the seashore.
- Coton in the Elms in Derbyshire is one of the furthest places in the UK from any coastal water, namely 70 mi/110km.
- The British Isles is made up of 6,298 islands.
- Only 290 of the islands in the UK are inhabited.
- The coast is home to many animals. It is particularly important to the sea bird colonies, with 80% of the world's gannets breeding on the British coast.
- The erosion of the cliffs of Isle of Wight and East Anglia has revealed fossils of dinosaurs, sharks, and woolly mammoths.
- St. John's Head in the Orkney Islands is the highest vertical sea cliff in the UK, namely 1,128 feet/335m.
- The Wales Coast Path is the world's longest coastal path at 870 miles. The England Coast Path is being constructed and is expected to be 2,800 miles long.
Coastal Landscapes in the UK - Key takeaways
- As the UK is an island nation, the coast is a crucial landscape close to many people. Famous coasts include Seven Sisters in East Sussex, Dungeness in Kent, Porthcurno in Cornwall, and Blackpool Sands in Devon
- There are three types of protecting the coast:
- Hard engineering strategies
- Soft engineering strategies
- Managed retreats.
- On coastlines, there are distinct landforms that become unique features. Two types of landforms seen in the UK are:
- Erosional landforms
- Depositional landforms.
- Types of landforms, including headlands, bays, caves, arches, stacks, stumps, and cliffs, are erosional landforms. Beaches, spits, and bars are depositional landforms.
- Famous examples of coastal landscapes in the UK are Old Harry Rocks, Chesil Beach, and The Green Bridge of Wales.
References
- Fig. 1: Tean from St Martin's, Scilly (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tean_from_St_Martin%27s,_Scilly_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1607612.jpg) by John Rostron (https://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/32907) Licensed by CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)
- Fig. 2: Mappleton (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mappleton_sands.jpg) by Helen Wilkinson (https://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/15931) Licensed by CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en)
- Fig. 3: arches in Scotland (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Natural_Arches_-_geograph.org.uk_-_3114862.jpg), by Graeme Smith (https://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/10185), Licensed by CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)
- Fig. 4: Aerial view of Calshot Spit (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aerial_View_of_Calshot_Spit_-_geograph.org.uk_-_718251.jpg) by Colin Babb (https://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/22455), Licensed by CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)
- Fig. 5: Old Harry Rocks (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oldharryrocks.jpg) by John Tomlinson (https://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/520) Licensed by CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)
- Fig. 6: Chesil Beach and the Fleet lagoon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chesil_Beach_and_the_Fleet_Lagoon.jpg) by BennH (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:BennH) Licensed by CC By-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)
- Fig. 7: Green Bridge of Wales (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Green_Bridge_of_Wales_1_-_Pembrokeshire_(2010).jpg) by JKMMX (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:JKMMX), Licensed by CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)
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