SHIFTING SANDS

The Eden Estuary and the dunes are well known for their wildlife importance. However the dunes have another significant role as the buffer zone between St Andrews Links and the estuary, they play an important part in protecting the historic, world-renowned golf courses.

In 1997, Davy Wilson, the head greenkeeper of the 105-year-old Jubilee Course, noticed the dunes were shrinking and started monitoring the rate of erosion. By 2000 this had reached critical point where repeated storms had washed away the dunes to the extent that the sea was only yards away from the 9th fairway. .

St Andrews Links Trust is charged with preserving and protecting the Links, which are not only important locally, but are also an irreplaceable part of Scotland's heritage. And with this level of responsbility, the Trust had to act.

After long consultations with SNH, the Fife Council Ranger Service and various other organisations, coastal protection measures were put in place costing over £100,000.

The most experimental of these was beach nourishment. In the winter of 2001/02 thousands of tonnes of sand were trucked in from the estuary at low tide and deposited on the beach. Marram grass was planted, some by local school children, to help stabilisation.

Now Davy no longer has to trudge out to see how close the tide is to his course. Monitoring and measuring is taken care of by St Andrews University using GPS. It recently presented the results of its monitoring to everyone concerned including the Links Trust and Scottish Natural Heritage. It was agreed that the defences are so far exceeding expectations with sand being displaced onto the original dunes rather being washed away. The question now is how long will the dunes survive before the Links Trust has to invest in further measures. Only tides and time will tell.