Ardhuncart is at the end of a 10 mile stretch of floodplain. The river valley narrows to form a choke point. The best alluvial land for agriculture is on the flood plain. Farmers do not like their crops or livestock to be under water. Therefore, the banks have been built up with embankments and walls. At the same time burns have been straightened to improve drainage and lack of trees speeds up run off into the river. Rainfall in our part of Scotland has increased by 25% in the last decade. This has the effect of turning the river into a hose pipe. It cannot spread to the natural contours of the land and there is a massively increased volume of water.

We are in danger losing buildings which have stood for 100 years and the access road (council owned)  is often under water and is being washed away.

Loss of spawning redds through flood events is now a huge problem, as once-in a-decade floods are happening several times a year. Jim Kerr of the Don River Board says floods are taking place November, December and January (Salmonid spawning season). Historically the river was low in this period with frozen ground and precipitation as snow which thaws gradually through the spring.

The river has burst through an embankment at Jock Reids pool

Like a boil being lanced this seems to be taking off pressure downstream. SEPA will not allow the rebuilding of the embankment even if we thought this desirable. We are looking at the possibility of sacrificing a few acres of land which has been traditionally cropped for barley to allow the river to do its thing. The land can still be grazed when not wet.