COMMISSIONED REPORT Commissioned Report No. 109 The beaches of Scotland For further information on this report please contact: Alistair Rennie Scottish Natural Heritage INVERNESS Telephone: 01463 706450 E-mail:
[email protected] This report should be quoted as: Ritchie, W. and Mather, A.S. (1984). The beaches of Scotland. Commissioned by the Countryside Commission for Scotland 1984. Reprinted 2005 by Scottish Natural Heritage as Commissioned Report No. 109. This report, or any part of it, should not be reproduced without the permission of Scottish Natural Heritage. This permission will not be withheld unreasonably. The views expressed by the author(s) of this report should not be taken as the views and policies of Scottish Natural Heritage. Please note that all statistics, lists of Sites of Special Scientific Interest, etc are given in the appendix in the project report and some of them may have changed. © Scottish Natural Heritage. First published CCS 1984. COMMISSIONED REPORT Summary The beaches of Scotland Commissioned Report No. 109 Contractor: W. Ritchie and A.S. Mather Reprint: 2005 (originally published 1984) Background Beginning in 1969 and ending in 1981, all the sand beaches of Scotland, along with their associated dunes, links and machair areas (thereafter referred to as a beach unit or beach complex), were surveyed for the Countryside Commission for Scotland. Eighteen regional reports were published, and their boundaries, along with dates of completion, are shown in the accompanying outline map. Each survey consisted of a physical inventory of the location, dimensions, morphology, materials, vegetation and land use of the beach complex areas.