Across the pond

The red coastguard helicopters (as you can just about see in my photo above) were buzzing over Lyme Bay today as the authorities decide what to do about huge landslip which cascaded rocks, tip debris and mud on to one of Dorset’s most popular beaches on Tuesday night. Dorset Council has sealed the western end of the prom with yellow tape, and when I arrived there at 2.30 PM today, a notice was being put up, warning people if they ducked under the tape and walked the coastal path, they would be liable to a £400 fine.

In fact, it is legal and fairly safe for adults, to walk along the beach view the fall up close and then continue on to Charmouth, so long as you stick to the two or three hours around low tide, which was 3.55 PM today. You do need to keep well away from the cliffs. There are two dangers.

There could be further falls, of rocks, trees and debris as a result of Tuesday’s slip. And there could be another big slip at several points along this coast. The national media proclaimed on Wednesday that it was the worst for a hundred years, but the front page. of today’s Lyme Regis News has a more sober and accurate story. Here are the first two paragraphs:

LYME REGIS has suffered its biggest landslip for 26 years.
The slip on Tuesday night blocked more than 400 metres of coastline at the Spittles, between Lyme and Charmouth, an area notorious for landslides.

The News quotes extensively from Richard Edmonds, the earth science manager for the Jurassic Coast and Dorset County Council.

“This was a very, very big one – it is not stable at all. It’s very steep so I should imagine the sea will take it away, but probably not until the autumn storms.
“But there are lots of loose boulders there that are going to come rumbling down.
“I wonder what it has done in terms of walking the beach – it might be much more difficult to walk from Lyme Regis to Charmouth.
“It is going to remain a hazard because of falling rocks so people will need to stay away, certainly from the base of the cliff.”

The News has a picture taken by Maritime and Coastguard Agency from a helicopter, which gives a good overall view of the scene at high tide.

Even without the present instability heightened by all the recent rain, this coast can be dangerous because of the number of spots where you can easily cut off by the tide. Last Saturday, before the slide, the Lyme Coastguard Rescue team was called out when two people were seen scrambling up the cliffs. This is always risky because as well as the possibility of dislodging rocks, you can find yourself in deep mud or quicksand before you get to the top.

My final picture is another view of the section of the coast west of Charmouth, which the coastguard thinks is liable to another slip before the century is up.