Our work at Mullion Cove

Stormy weather hitting the breakwater at Mullion Harbour — Storms hitting the breakwater at Mullion Harbour | © Bill Scolding

Mullion Harbour located on the west coast of the Lizard peninsula, has been withstanding the Atlantic waves since the 1890s, when it was built by the cove's owner, Lord Robartes, in an attempt to create a commercial port. The harbour did not function well for larger vessels but it did work well to shelter the local pilchard fleet. Today it provides a haven for a few commercial fishing boats, outdoor activity providers, recreational boats and a dozen seafront properties. The Cove attracts around 80,000 visitors a year.

This ageing structure is seeing increasing pressure from the impacts of climate change and we are working with the local community and other key stakeholders to adapt.

Mullion Harbour Study

National Trust has cared for Mullion Harbour since 1945, in that time, we've spent over £2 million repairing the harbour's two breakwaters, with more than 80 per cent of that spending since 1995, as winter storms have become more frequent.

In 2004, looking to an uncertain future with a predicted increase in the frequency and strength of storms along with rising sea levels and growing cost implications, National Trust commissioned the Mullion Harbour Study, which was completed in 2006. Working with a group of stakeholders (including users of the harbour, members of the local community, statutory organisations and other harbour managers) the study looked at the harbour structure and the impact of a changing climate on its future management.

The study concluded that the 100-year-old harbour was in better condition than we thought, but going forward, increased prevalence of storms, predicted sea level rises and general wear and tear would mean that repairs and maintenance alone would not be able to counteract the increasing environmental pressures the harbour is under.

People inspect damage to the breakwater at Mullion Harbour — Inspecting the breakwaters at Mullion Harbour | © John Miller

Adapting the harbour structure

Through the Harbour Study we collaboratively created a long-term strategy and management plan for Mullion Harbour, which outlined that we would continue to repair and maintain the harbour to the best of our shared ability while accepting that, over the course of time, various ‘thresholds’ would be met when like-for-like repairs were no longer viable. At these junctures, the focus would need to move towards adapting affected parts of the harbour structure(s) to improve resilience in the face of increasing environmental pressures.

We continue to undertake regular repairs and maintenance to the harbour, however parts of the southern breakwater have recently reached a new threshold and, together with the local community and our partners, we need to explore how we might adapt the southern breakwater, to best respond to the quickening pace of change we are seeing around our coast.

In the meantime, we are focusing our maintenance efforts on the more robust and stronger western breakwater. This year specialist contractors have undertaken surveys and large-scale repairs, whilst harbour users and local volunteers are have helped us with small, but vital repairs and maintenance to improve the structure's resilience to winter storms.

You can read more about how we're adapting for climate change in our new report, A Climate for Change: Adaptation and the National Trust.

Adapting for Climate Change