Coastal castles in the UK could be moved inland

Louise Gray in the Telegraph: As sea levels threaten a number of historic properties, the government is considering ways to protect them. Historic monuments that are threatened with destruction could be moved in exceptional circumstances to a "more sustainable location", according to a consultation paper released by the Department for the Environment. Coastal defences should be improved in less severe cases and valuable assets recorded in case they are lost forever, it says.

Owners of homes which will be lost to the sea could receive grants to cover demolition and moving costs. This week the Met Office will warn of the threat of rising sea levels to Britain over the next 80 years.

…There is precedent for historic buildings to be dismantled and rebuilt elsewhere. The 17th Century Clavell Tower, at Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset was recently moved 25 metres inland at a cost of £898,000. At St Fagans National History Museum in Cardiff buildings a school, chapel, Workmen's Institute, farms and houses have been re-erected.

Hundreds of monuments around the British coast are at risk of sea level rises and erosion and could be candidates for relocation. St Michael's Mount in Cornwall which is currently reached by a causeway could become an inaccessible island, Westbury Court Garden in Gloucestershire could be flooded by the River Severn and Dunstanburgh Castle in Northumbria is under threat from erosion….

Dunstanburgh Castle, shot by Glen Bowman from Newcastle, England, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License