Selkirk Flood Protection Scheme

The town of Selkirk is located on the River Ettrick in the Scottish Borders. It has a long history of damaging floods from the River Ettrick and more recently from the Long Philip Burn.

The last major flood from the River Ettrick was in October 1977 when flooding of the Ettrick and Yarrow Waters caused extensive flooding throughout the Ettrick Valley, at Philiphaugh in Selkirk and Lindean just past Selkirk. Localised flooding occurred at other areas including within the Riverside Business Area. The flood is however remembered for destroying the 'auld Selkirk Stane Brig' and effectively severing the town in two.

More recently, in May 2003 and August 2004 severe flash flooding on the Long Philip Burn inundated over 100 properties in the Bannerfield Area and caused significant damage to Selkirk Rugby Club. (more details)

Following these events, Scottish Borders Council (SBC) commissioned a number of studies and conducted a prioritisation exercise which identified Selkirk as a high priority for investment in flood protection measures. This resulted in SBC taking forward Selkirk Flood Protection Scheme (FPS) as a major project to tackle the issues of flooding in Selkirk. The project formally commenced in October 2009 with Halcrow Group Limited being engaged by SBC to undertake the Project Design.

As a formal Flood Protection Scheme Selkirk FPS must be designed in accordance with the appropriate guidance issued by the Scottish Government. It will be one of the first such projects submitted for approval under the new Flood Risk Management (Scotland) 2009 Act. (more details)

This website has been created by the Selkirk FPS Project Team to provide you with information on the Scheme, inform you of progress, and allow you the opportunity to comment on our efforts through the 'Feedback' page. It is our intention to update this website as often as possible and we undertake to upload all critical project updates so that you may keep track of the project's progress.

We hope you enjoy the website.

Project Brochure

Please click on this image to view a the Project Brochure. This brochure was distributed to all business and residential addresses in the Ettrick Catchment in May 2010.

The Selkirk Flood of 1977

The Project Team have obtained extraordinary footage of the Selkirk Bridge collapsing during the last major flood event from the Ettrick in 1977. Please click on the image below to view the bridge collapsing.

Scheme Documents & Plans

CLICK HERE for details