Storm Brendan lashes Lochaber causing localised flooding
Fort William and the wider Lochaber area bore the full brunt of Storm Brendan this week, as gale force winds gusting up to 80mph and high seas lashed coastal areas.
Highland Council and its partners issued a warning on Monday afternoon after it was predicted that sea levels would see a 1.2m rise due to a storm surge, peaking with the high tide around 8pm later that day.
In Fort William that resulted in the popular Crannog Seafood Restaurant, which overlooks Loch Linnhe, being partially flooded. Thankfully, the damage was not as severe as the business has experienced in previous floods.
Speaking on Tuesday morning, company director Lorna Finlayson said: ‘Although it seemed dramatic, it wasn’t as extreme as 15 years ago, with very little water ingress this time. The pier itself has suffered some damage with displaced planks, and the affected areas are cordoned off. The council was very helpful providing weather warnings and sandbags in advance of the storm.
‘We are still assessing the damage to the Crannog outbuildings, however, the interior of our restaurant is intact so we will be back up and running as soon as possible.’
The pier is owned by Highland Council which is responsible for its maintenance and will hopefully be effecting repairs as soon as possible.
Fort William’s Westend car park overlooking the loch was also deluged with about two to three feet of water at the peak of the tide and wind for approximately an hour, while a number of the dinghies parked up in the nearby Lochaber Yacht Club (LYC) boat park went for a sail by themselves.
According to the LYC Facebook page damage to the boats was minimal, with dinghies ending up tightly packed into one end of the dinghy park area.
The local authority had warned residents, particularly those in Fort William, Caol and Corpach of the impending possible flooding.
However, there were no issues at the Caol foreshore as sea water did not breach the seawall onto Erracht Drive. The Corpach basin had sea water over the top of the Loch Linnhe sea wall, but this soon subsided with no damage or further issues.
Some localised road flooding occurred and the Lochyside/Caol road was closed for two hours until 10pm.
Also affected was the A861 near Resipole on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula and a section of the A82 in the Invercoe area.