In geological terms, it is relatively young and maps indicate it was still part of the headland in 1750. Orkney’s legendary Old Man of Hoy is Britain’s tallest sea stack and stands at an imposing 137 metres above sea level.
Orkney’s Old Man of Hoy was still part of the headland in 1750. This loss of a large section of the South West Coast Path saw tens of thousands of tons of chalk disappear into the sea overnight.Įven more recently, a sandy beach returned to Dooagh on Achill Island off the west coast of Ireland as suddenly as it was removed 33 years previously. Arch Rock in Freshwater Bay, on the UK’s Isle of Wight, formed through centuries of coastal erosion, collapsed in 1992, while an enormous section of cliff near Lulworth in Dorset, UK, disappeared without warning in April 2013. The transient nature of cliffs and beaches has been evident in the loss of many beautiful features in the last few decades. Humans tramping across the arch may have sped up its collapse, but its demise was, sadly, inevitable as global sea levels rise. While Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat tweeted that it was “ heartbreaking”, he rightly confirmed it was unavoidable. From stunning photographic tributes across social media to the ever prevalent memes, countries united in memorialising this iconic piece of the Gozo coastline. When heavy storms brought Malta’s world-famous Azure Window crashing into the sea earlier this year, the loss of one of the world’s natural wonders prompted strong emotional reactions.
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