Sea wall plan angers beach lovers

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EDINBURGH, Scotland, July 4 (UPI) -- History lovers in Edinburgh are wary of plans to build a sea wall along a beach that has served as an invasion point.

The Caroline Park Association says the planned wall and 20-mile walkway would gut one of the few natural beaches on the Firth of Forth, The Scotsman reported.

The beach is supposed to be the point where the English Earl of Hereford landed in the 16th century on his way to sack Edinburgh -- an invasion ordered by Henry VIII because his son, Edward, had been rejected as a husband for Mary Queen of Scots.

Alan Cooper of Waterfront Edinburgh argued that the earl actually landed at an island known as General's Rock and the effect of the sea wall will be to create a bigger and better beach.

John Arthur, a local historian, disagreed and said Waterfront Edinburgh should return to its original and far more modest plan.

"The beach is historically significant as that whole Wardie to Granton coast has been a landing place for invasions," he said.