Alnmouth Village Golf Club facing 'existential' threat from coastal erosion

Northumberland Correspondent Tom Barton reports on erosion threatening the future of an historic golf course.

A golf course on the Northumberland coast could lose its honour as the oldest nine hole links in the country if the sea continues to encroach.

Alnmouth Village Golf Club has stood on the site for more than 150 years but coastal erosion is threatening its existence.

Steve Lockley, from the club, told ITV Tyne Tees it was "existential" for the course which has already lost land to the sea.

He said: “It's taken away, basically half of our fifth tee green. So we're literally a metre away from losing that entire green if we got another wind and flood of that level again, intensity.

"So it's pretty existential for a golf course. Because we're a nine hole golf course, we don't want to be an eight hole golf course.”

Half of the fifth tee green at Alnmouth Village Golf Club has already been lost to coastal erosion. Credit: ITV Tyne Tees

But plans are afoot to save the course.

The community will come together later this year to repair the groynes that act as existing sea defences.

It is hoped this will allow sand to build back up and form a defensive barrier against the sea.Ian Garrett, from the golf club, said: “It will buy time in terms of the impact of the coastal erosion.

"It will allow time to develop a plan that protects the next generation of this village 25, 30, 40, 50 years ahead.

"If we don't do something, then sooner or later this green may be gone. And it will lead to greater issues in terms of the rest of the village.”

Concrete blocks once completely buried by sand are now exposed to the elements. Credit: ITV Tyne Tees

And it is not just the golf course that has been affected. Until a few months ago, concrete blocks on the beach were completely buried under sand.

The sea has taken that away and they are now left exposed to the elements.The increasing frequency of violent storms in the face of climate change poses a threat to much of the coastline.Dr Seb Pitman, from Newcastle University, said: “Storms like Babet back in October were really unusual because it sat over the coastline and we had pretty much 48 hours of waves in excess of four metres high there.

"So we're seeing strange behaviour in weather, weather patterns and storm systems. And when you combine that with sea level rise, which is moving all of these processes further inland, we're starting to see these impacts more acutely.”

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