Introduction
Scotland’s coastline is an astonishing 11,800km long! That’s twice the length of the English coast and longer than the entire eastern coastline of the United States of America; 8% of all the coastline in Europe is Scottish!
The range of landforms and habitats which make up the Scottish coastline is outstanding: from towering cliffs in Orkney and St Kilda to the broad machair plains of the Uists, and the shifting dunes of Sutherland and Aberdeenshire. In the west, sheltered sea lochs provide a stark contrast to the exposed rocky shores of the open coast. In the east the predominantly low-lying coastline, dominated by dune-fringed sandy beaches, is cut into by the Firths of Moray, the Tay and the Forth as well as numerous smaller inlets. Add to this nearly 800 vegetated islands and it is easy to see why Scotland’s coast is so long and diverse.
There is no one point in Scotland more than 65km from the coast, and a significant proportion of the population lives within only a few kilometres of it. Throughout history the sea sea has had an important influence on Scotland’s development and the people that live and visit there; this influence continues today. Many livelihoods still depend directly or indirectly upon the sea: important resources, such as food, oil and gas, are harvested there; we are still dependent on the sea for the transportation of people and materials, and the coast remains many peoples’ favoured holiday destination.