Overview:
A remote village is facing major issues after a landslide in early October blocked the main link to the remainder of Scotland.
The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides.
The Guardian has run a story about the remote Scottish village of Ardfern, located on the Craignish peninsula in Argyll, and its travails as a result of a landslide triggered by heavy rainfall in early October, almost a month ago.
The landslide occurred on 7 October 2023, triggered by extremely heavy rainfall that caused disruption across much of Scotland. Fortunately, no-one was killed in the event, although two cars were caught up in the event. The occupants of the cars were lucky to escape uninjured.
The landslide is located at [56.18464, -5.49541]. The picture below shows the site, from a Google Earth image collected in 2018:-
The Ardfern Yacht Centre has posted an image on its Facebook site that shows the aftermath of the landslide:-
The image suggests that the event may have been three (or even four) landslides occurring in parallel. All appear to have started as smallish shallow translational landslides high on the slope, which have stripped and entrained regolith from the lower parts of the slope. These would by typical of landslides triggered by extremely high rainfall intensity, which would have saturated the source zone.
Reports indicate that the mass of material was around 6,000 tonnes (some reports suggest 9,500 tonnes), which is understandably proving extremely difficult to clear. The result is that the main road to Lochgilphead is blocked, meaning that a long detour is needed. Asa consequence, Ardfern is struggling in a range of ways, including a loss of trade for businesses; difficulties getting children and teachers to school; and access to shops. The Craignish community has set up a website to promote the area. The site leaves me yearning to visit – Scotland is supremely beautiful.
The area now faces a double challenge, though. The first is that making that very large slope safe is not going to be a trivial matter, even after the debris has been removed. And the second is likely future disruption across Scotland as intense rainfall events become more common and even larger in magnitude. Scotland has many sites like this one, so managing the hazard will be difficult.