A large proportion of the coastline of the UK and Ireland is currently suffering from erosion (17% in the UK; 19.9% in Ireland) and of the 3700 km coastline of England and Wales 28% is experiencing erosion greater than 10 cm per year. In Scotland, 78% of the coast is considered ‘hard or mixed’, and is unlikely to erode at perceptible rates, 19% is ‘soft/erodible’, whilst 3% has artificial defences. Since the 1970s, 77% of the soft/erodible coast in Scotland has remained stable, 11% has accreted seawards and 12% has eroded landwards.