“The wind maketh the dunes and the sea taketh.” That biblical cadence captures the truth of our shorelines: beaches and dunes are never fixed, but in constant flux. Yet again and again, landowners and local authorities try to “hold the line” against waves and tides, pouring money into rock, concrete, and sand fences. The result? Expensive failure, ecological loss, and landscapes more fragile than before.
In East Lothian, where the Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) was first drawn up in 2002, we can see two archetypal situations: (1) dunes eroding faster than they accrete, where farmers and golf managers spend heavily trying to defend the line; and (2) sandy beaches disappearing because their natural sand supply has been cut off, often by golf reclamations or coastal defences that block sediment drift. In both cases, the SMP evidence is stark1: the more we intervene, the less resilient our coast becomes.
1. When Dunes Erode Faster than They Grow
Take Broad Sands and West Links (Unit 11 in the SMP, near Yellowcraig). Here, the foredunes regularly erode in storm seasons, cutting into the links and threatening golf greens. Faced with this, landowners have tried revetments, gabions, fences, even ad-hoc rubble dumping. But the SMP was blunt: “Adoption of Hold the Line along a naturally adjusting shoreline … would starve the adjacent shoreline of sediment, transferring the erosion problem elsewhere”.
In other words, by armouring one stretch of dune, you rob the next bay along of sand. Worse, the SMP warned that hard defences here would damage features of the SSSI and SPA — the internationally protected dune habitats and bird roosting sites that make this coast special. The recommendation was not to build, but to accept natural cycles of erosion and accretion, while using only light-touch measures like fencing or planting to keep visitors from trampling fragile dune faces.
Modern science backs this up. A 2024 study from the U.S. showed unmanaged dunes had greater root biomass, more species richness, and better storm resilience than those “stabilised” by sand fencing and planting regimes (Nielsen et al. 2024, Scientific Reports). The conclusion was clear: dunes work best when left to their own rhythms. Farmers and golf clubs spending six figures on rock and fencing are not just wasting money — they’re weakening the very systems they want to protect.
2. When Sand Supply is Cut Off, the Beach Vanishes
The second case is even more sobering. Along parts of East Lothian’s open coast, notably at East Dunbar, beaches have thinned and shrunk because their natural sand inputs have been starved. The SMP noted that future erosion of East Dunbar beach was “heavily dependent on sediment supply” — and that supply had been constrained by decades of reclamations, harbour works, and land take for golf.
At Dunbar Golf Course (Unit 19) the situation was almost tragicomic. To defend greens, rubble and rock were tipped onto the shore. The SMP described these as “unsightly and unnatural,” transferring erosion elsewhere. Its prescription? No Active Intervention, and even removal of the rubble, because the natural shoreline was stable or accreting.
This is a textbook example of “coastal squeeze.” Beaches and dunes need space to migrate inland as sea levels rise. But when their sand sources are blocked, and their seaward face is armoured, they have nowhere to go. They don’t simply stay put — they disappear. The irony is that golf, a sport utterly dependent on the coastal links landscape, has in places undermined the very dunes and beaches that created it.
Why Defending the Line Fails
Both these cases reveal the same dynamics:
- Sediment starvation. Hard defences interrupt the flow of sand alongshore. What looks like a local fix simply shifts the erosion problem down the coast.
- False security. Armouring gives landowners confidence to build or plant closer to the edge, tying future generations into bigger, costlier defences.
- Ecological loss. Concrete, rubble, and gabions strip away habitat complexity. Wrack lines, dune blowouts, and shifting sand patches are not “mess” but the very processes that sustain biodiversity.
- Economic drain. The SMP’s 2001 estimates put East Lothian’s required capital works at £2.35 million, with £31,000 per year in monitoring and maintenance. Two decades on, costs have multiplied, with little evidence of sustainable protection.
The conclusion is consistent with more recent Dynamic Coast work (Scottish Government, 2017, 2021): in most soft-coast settings, non-intervention (or managed realignment) is cheaper, more sustainable, and better for biodiversity than trying to pin a shifting shoreline.
Giving the Sea Space
If holding the line doesn’t work, what’s the alternative? The SMP itself hinted at it: retreat or no active intervention, coupled with monitoring. Dynamic Coast sharpened the message: we must make space for the sea.
That means:
- Accepting short-term dune erosion as part of long-term resilience.
- Allowing sandy bays to reconfigure naturally, even if it means farmland or fairways are sacrificed.
- Removing failed or redundant defences that block sediment pathways.
- Setting back golf developments and coastal assets by at least 50 metres, rather than expecting public money to hold their edges.
- Using nature-based approaches — dune vegetation, driftwood, wrack retention — only as support, not substitutes for natural processes.
This is not neglect. It is strategic non-intervention: knowing when to step back, and when to support nature’s own defences.
A Call for Honesty
Too often, coastal “defence” is driven by short-term economics or political optics: protecting farmland, a caravan park, or a golf clubhouse. Yet the evidence shows that money spent trying to hold eroding dune lines or replace vanishing sand is money wasted. Worse, it locks us into a cycle of escalating costs and ecological damage.
The SMP of 2002 was already warning against these mistakes. Two decades later, with climate-driven sea-level rise accelerating (up to 6 mm/yr expected by 2050), the case for letting coasts breathe is only stronger.
Beaches and dunes are priority habitats under UK biodiversity frameworks. They are also our cheapest, most effective natural flood defence. Every pound sunk into concrete and gabions is a pound not spent on adaptation, retreat, or habitat creation.
Conclusion
The lesson from East Lothian’s shorelines is blunt: you cannot control the sea. Where dunes erode faster than they grow, attempts to defend the line drain money and destroy resilience. Where sand supply has been lost, beaches will not return with rock barriers and concrete — they need sediment and space.
The rational path is not to “manage” the beach into stasis, but to stand back and let wind and waves do their job. Monitor, yes; intervene only where human life and critical infrastructure are at stake. Otherwise, accept dynamism as the price — and the value — of a living coast.
So let the dunes shift, let the wrack rot, let the beaches breathe. To borrow from the song: leave that beach alone.
References
- East Lothian Council (2002). Shoreline Management Plan – Summary Report. Babtie Group / ABP Research.
- Scottish Government (2017, 2021). Dynamic Coast: Scotland’s National Coastal Change Assessment.
- Nielsen, C. et al. (2024). “Unmanaged coastal dunes store more biomass and support greater species richness than managed dunes.” Scientific Reports.
- Knight, J. (2024). “Dunes as green infrastructure: risks of misplaced optimism.” Sustainability 16(3): 1056.
Aside: Why In-Sea Barriers and Groynes Fail
Structures like offshore reefs, groynes, and in-sea barriers are often promoted as “soft” alternatives to hard defences, but the science and local experience show otherwise. They interrupt natural longshore drift, starving some stretches of coast while dumping excess sediment elsewhere. Removing kelp and wrack has the same effect: it cuts off natural sand trapping and nutrient cycling. The paradox is that these interventions rarely achieve their goal — instead of building up sand, they usually prevent its natural accumulation. Placing heavy stone directly on sandy beaches can even accelerate scour and loss, a phenomenon already observed on parts of the East Lothian coast. The result is the same: high costs, poor outcomes, and a coastline less resilient than before.
Useful links
Simple webmap of sea level predictions
Complex webmap of sea level predictions
Dynamic Coast
Flood Maps
Flood Risk Management Strategies