Coastal Monitoring Site: Mallaig

Mallaig harbour lies on the mainland of Scotland. Although this is a site on the west coast of Scotland and thus relatively exposed to the North Atlantic, the harbour of Mallaig lies in the lee of the Island of Skye which is north-west of Mallaig. The smaller offshore islands of Eigg and Rum also afford some protection to this coastline.

Mallaig was set up as a temperature monitoring site in 1999. In 2003 after some data losses, the minilogger was removed from its original position and a more secure site was established close to the fishery pier. Whilst the minilogger is in a sheltered site within the harbour, the coastline outside the harbour is exposed. The minilogger recorder is deployed at a fixed datum point (approximately 0.5m below chart datum) within a metal pipe attached to the pier.