Professor Michael Berry, from Bristol University, first got in touch with us last year; his speciality is in tidal bores, and he spoke at Oxford in the 2018 Hooke lecture.

He is north of the border for a day or two, giving a talk about tidal bores in Glasgow today, before coming south to meet his wife in Dumfries, and then down to stay in the Nith Hotel in order to catch the Nith tidal bore tonight and tomorrow morning before travelling south again!

If you are in Glencaple at the Quay to look out for the bore, please say a warm Caerlaverock ‘hello’ to Michael and Monica; we are unable to make it tomorrow morning. (And if you manage to capture it on film, still or video, do send it to us to share!)

Edit: We met up with Michael and Monica last night – it was dark and very blustery and we had to hold onto our hats and shout loudly to each other! They are lovely, and were as excited as we were to hear (above the roar of the wind) the boar as it came along. Michael’s strong torchlight picked out the waves as they approached the Quay at a pace and we all ‘ran’ to watch it recede up the Nith. ‘Exhilarating’ would be the best word to describe the experience!

The Boathouse helpfully posted the times of the Nith bore over the next few days. Their times were a good bit earlier than our rough guestimates, and the bore actually came a good 7 or 8 minutes before that this morning, so do leave plenty of leeway, and wear your waterproofs! Better to be early than too late!

The bore is predicted to pass Glencaple Quay at 10:44 tomorrow morning (Thursday 21st), 11:28 Friday morning and 12:10 on Saturday afternoon.

Here’s the talk that Michael gave in Oxford (the same that he is giving in Glasgow today). There are lots of fascinating facts and entertaining photos and videos of bores around the world as well as the physics of bores:

Direct link:

podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/secrets-mathematics