Holderness Coast

• Holderness Coast

  Stretches 61 km long from Flamborough to Spurn Point
• Eroding at an average annual rate of 2 metres
• 2 million tonnes of material are lost every year
• Since Roman times around 3 miles of land has been lost, including 23 towns/villages
• Cliffs

  • Made of soft boulder clay, which erodes rapidly when saturated
• Coastal processes


  • Strong prevailing winds
  • Strong destructive waves
• Flamborough


  • Exposed chalk has features such as caves, arches and stacks
• Coastal management


  • Hard engineering solutions at Hornsea and Withernsea
• Erosion


  • Undefended area of coastline at Skipsea
• Spurn point


  • Provides evidence of longshore drift on the Holderness coast
  • Example of a spit, a depositional landform
• At Skipsea, beach material is being transported south along the Holderness coast by longshore drift
• In Skipsea, there are no groynes to reduce the transportation of sediment along the coast
• The Caravan park is affected by the lack of coastal defence, losing roughly 10 caravan pitches a year
• Property values in Skipsea have dropped significantly, particularly for those who are losing their gardens along the seafront
• Mappleton contains around 50 properties, housing 342 residents
• Almost 2 million was spent on two rock groynes and a rock revetment at Mappleton


  1991
• Coastal defences at Mappleton

  • Rock groynes trap beach material and stop it from being transported away by longshore drift, building up a wide sandy beach which protects cliffs from destructive waves
  • Rock armour at the bottom of the cliffs absorb wave energy
  • Cliff reprofiling forming gentle slopes stabilised by vegetation, preventing mass movement such as slumping and mudflows
• Despite coastal defences at Mappleton, the erosion rate further south has increased rapidly