Nairn for holidays any time of the year

It was a bit of a gloomy day but an intersting end to the evening which looked pretty good from the Links. Pictures here on the Gurn Flickr pages.

Nairn West beach erosion

Another week another couple of feet towards the Links.

Nairn Beach - still popular after all these years!

From the Nairnshire Mirror August 10th 1848. Picture will enlarge.

Dead Dolphin?

This picture in from Charlie Black. Taken on the rocks near the swimming pool on the West Beach. He isn't sure but he thinks it might be a dead Dolphin calf. It would be extremely sad if one of the local Moray Firth Dolphins has come to grief.

The Gurn also heard today about an article in the Forres Gazette of a 4ft long dog-fish being seen by the pier at mid-day on Saturday the 25th of June. Picture and details in the Forres Gazette.

UPDATE: Another of the regulars came across a dead mature Dolphin last Sunday a quarter of a mile past the bothy on the Delnies shoreline.

A seaside award but no mention in the MCS good beach guide

The image shows the Highland Beaches that made it into the Marine Conservation Society's Good Beach Guide 2011. We don't get a mention, here's how the MCS work out which beaches to recommend:
"MCS Recommended is our top standard for excellent water quality. To achieve this standard beaches must meet the European Guideline standard, ALL samples must pass the European Mandatory standard (compared to the 95% pass rate required by the European Guideline standard) and local continuous sewage discharges must be properly treated.
The European Union’s Bathing Water Directive (76/160/EEC) sets standards for water quality at popular UK beaches that have been designated as bathing waters because they attract large numbers of bathers. ‘Designated’ bathing sites water samples must be taken regularly (typically once a week, generally totaling 20 samples per bathing water season1) by the respective environment agency2.
In order to meet this Directive’s Mandatory standard 95% of samples taken from a particular beach must contain no more than 10,000 total coliforms per 100ml of sea water, and no more than 2,000 faecal coliforms per 100ml of sea water. Total and faecal coliforms are used to indicate the presence of pollution from human sewage and/or livestock (e.g. cows, sheep and pigs) waste. An increase in any of these bacteria indicates a decrease in the quality of the bathing water.
The Directive’s Guideline standard is 20 times as strict as its Mandatory standard. For a bathing water to comply with the Guideline standard, the Directive’s Mandatory standard must be met and 80% of the samples taken from a particular beach must contain no more than 500 total coliforms per 100ml of sea water, and no more than 100 faecal coliforms per 100ml of sea water. Additionally 90% of these samples must contain no more than 100 faecal streptococci per 100ml of sea water."

More information here.

Readers of the Nairnshire Telegraphe will have seen that Nairn has received its eighteenth seaside award from Keep Scotland Beautiful. We're not a Blue Flag beach with them however, you can see which beaches in Scotland are here.

Two organisations two different standards. How much does it affect Nairn? The Marine Conservation Society has a big profile with its annual Good Beach Guide but just how many families look up the minutiae of the local beach before heading to Nairn? Nairn can be very unlucky too if the storm drains empty into the river during heavy rain in the lead-up to a SEPA test of water quality. Flags and awards and recommendations for Nairn beaches are not a new issue and will probably remain a subject of debate for many years to come.

Not "illegal" but unenforceable signs to stay on West Beach

More from the River CC meeting at the Community Centre earlier this evening(Tues) - River Cllr Stephanie Whittaker had been asked by several dog owners as to why there were still signs telling people that dogs were not allowed on the West beach when they in fact are.

Tommy Hogg said that the signs were illegal anyway to which Cllr Graham Marsden replied that the signs were not illegal but unenforceable. There was much laughter and then he continued "they probably never have been enforceable." Graham then asked the River CC if they wanted them removed. When the matter went to the vote the members voted as follows.

For removing the signs - Iain Gordon

For retaining the signs - John Dolan, Jeanne Tolmie, Mike Henderson, Stephanie Whittaker.

Leslie Boulton abstained and Tommy Hogg didn't vote.

Early this morning one of the regular dog walkers on the West Beach told the Gurn that the signs were "dishonest and cowardly". These observer believes that the signs could lead to arguments on the beach as those in the know continue to ignore the signs and those who believe them to be true might remonstrate with dog owners, leading to unfortunate scenes.

This commentator believes that not everything in the world can be solved with signs. If some dog owners are letting their animals crap on the beach, or anywhere else in Nairn for that matter, then where are the famous Highland Council enforcement officers? If dogs are not under control anywhere then ring the police and complain. Well done Iain Gordon the voice of reason on the River CC on this subject last night - what a pity he was outvoted.

UPDATE 14/05/10 Recent troubles on Google Mountain or wherever Blogger is kept on servers has meant that around 36 hours worth of comments have vanished. They may come back but in the meantime this blogger has extracted, hopefully, all of them from e-mail notifications and inserted them as five long comments.

Willow discovers Nairn beach

This observer has a look at all Nairn mentions on twitter two or three times a week (you do get some mentions and links to odd things nothing to do with us too but often there's interesting info to be had) and yesterday there were plenty of folk telling the world how they were having a great time on Nairn beach. One post mentioned Willow the Lab's first trip to Nairn beach and there was a link to pictures on facebook.
There are some that don't want dogs on Nairn's West Beach (you will see from the poll now closed in the sidebar how divisive the West Community Councils proposal for polite anti-dog signs was) but remember dog owners come to Nairn and spend money too!

Nairn's Rubbish

Bratach is disappointed to see rubbish on the beach. Happens every year doesn't it, the beaches get busy and litter is left behind.

Nurn shingle

Another picture from Jingle Bangles. He wonders if anyone has thoughts about the change in the shingle build up adjacent to the west pier. Up until recently the deposits have had a smooth curved look to them but now there seems to have been a significant change even though it has been calm over the past couple of days.

Orange Bar

Thanks to Tommy for this pic of the late evening sun over the Old Bar earlier this week.

Climate change in Nairn - here already or coming very soon?

Jingle Bangle's picture of the high tide eating into the dunes on the 31st of March 2009. Can we expect even higher ones sooner rather than later?

Over the past three Wednesday evenings SNH ran a climate change panel in the Community Centre. Participants were asked to detail what features of the local environment were important to them, what changes they had personally seen taking place in the locality and what should be the priorities for preparing for climate change. Those taking part were told that the current predictions were for a 40cm sea rise by 2050 and the temperature increasing by 2.5C with dryer summers and wetter winters.
Much was discussed about all aspects of Nairnshire and how climate change would impact. Foremost in the minds of quite a few of those taking part was how we could defend the Fishertown and the seafront and the golf courses from the combined dangers of the sea rising and flooding from the river. It maybe that further action to prevent flooding might be a priority for Nairnites but just where would the funding come from? Would other bigger communities that were threatened with flooding be first in the queue? Of course, as mentioned above, climate change will present us with many difficulties and may come sooner rather than later. So just how do local people ensure that the authorities prepare effectively for that day? Or in the final analysis just how much can be achieved before you have to abandon some inhabited areas?
There was one suggestion that the debris that has built up in the river over the past few generations between the harbour and the railway bridge be removed to give more space to the larger volumes of water coming down in the spates and another that the Maggot should become part of the flood plain of the river again. How will the Nairn golf courses fare with rising sea levels, will there be any cash to protect them when priority will obviously be given to areas of habitation? There are tourism implications here too, will we get more tourists if we get warmer or will we lose them if the Golf courses go? Should we really be so occupied with trying to get a by-pass when perhaps an effective sea wall along the promenade might be needed sooner rather than later as we head into the next 10 to 20 years of this new millennium? Cash is scarce, the likes of Highland Council might have a climate change document out to consultation at the moment but where would the money come from to implement any recommendations?
The results of the climate change panel will eventually be fed back to those who took part, when we hear more we'll let you know.

Sunset 03/09/10 Nairn beach

More pictures here

Squid's in

None of your junk food here boy - we are real seagulls

The ‘Central Beach’ doesn’t exist

There’s East and there’s West. The term ‘central beach’ was a ploy dreamed up in the eighties by the then District Council officials to get a blue flag, the other more popular area the East Beach was getting a lot of dodgy test results at the time.
I note in the Nairnshire that there is a call from Graham Vine for more signs to discourage dogs and their owners from this part of the West Beach now that the Council dog ban signs have had to go. How in these cash strapped times would the Highland Council pay for more signs (that would have no legal force at all)? Perhaps we could close the swimming pool and divert the money to signs?
Now it is emerged that dogs should have been allowed on the beach after all, this commentator is quite happy to admit to (along with many, many other people) to ignoring the signs and taking dogs for walks on the beach regardless of the shiny enamel warnings. If more signs of a different nature go up I will still continue to do so, taking precautions of course to make sure that children and swans nearby are neither scared, annoyed or mauled. For goodness sake let common sense prevail and if anyone is unable or unwilling to control their dog then let the police deal with it.
Finally dogs and tourism do mix, just go for a walk around the caravan site (30,000 visitors per year), where some weeks just about every other caravan will have at least one resident dog. The staycationers are taking their canine friends on holiday with them and Nairn suits them perfectly.

Nairn beach recommended in Marine Conservation Society 2010 guide

Nairn Beach makes the grade again. Some other Scottish beaches didn't and are blaming last year's weather conditions according to the P&J. Here's the MSC details.
Here's the MSC guide to all Scottish beaches they recommend.

Another stormy day in Nairn

The Dunes continue to erode on the West Beach as the High tide backed by a strong wind from the North comes in.

Another famous person's dog on Nairn beach

On Sunday it was Jeff Zycinski, head of Radio BBC Scotland, that had a picture taken of his dog on Nairn beach. Today our internet monitoring unit can exclusively reveal that Charlie Whelan took his dog for a walk on Nairn beach recently. Here's the picture to prove it.

Soon the tourist season and the silly dog ban. Do we really need to waste money on that in these troubled times cash-strapped times? It's not only famous people that bring their dogs to Nairn and spend money but the unknown folk too. Dog owners are just as likely to spend money here as the canine-less. Let the dogs on all the beaches and if any dog-owners are irresponsible, hit them with the on-the-spot £50 turd penalty.

Sunday sunshine (and snow?) on Nairn Beach

Jeff Zycinski, Head of Radio at BBC Scotland visited Nairn beach yesterday and blogged about it:

'The Zed family have been trying to hurry along the coming of spring. It's all in the mind, you see. That's why we hit the road to Nairn this morning and enjoyed a lovely hour or so on the East Beach with the sun blazing on our necks while we kicked the snow off our shoes'

Great pictures Jeff but I think that might be ice that your pooch is sitting in however. Click here to visit Jeff's blog.

Name that fish

This creature was about a foot long and had sharp teeth. Can anyone identify the species for Murd?

After the spate

Picture will enlarge. Sunday afternoon strollers enjoy the new beachscape.