A north-east harbour has been closed after a section of it collapsed into the sea.
The alarm was raised at Banff Marina on Friday night when a corner of the pier crumbled away near pleasure boats.
No one was injured in the incident, which took place at about 10pm, but Aberdeenshire Council has closed off access to the affected area until it can be repaired.
It is currently unknown how much those repairs will cost.
A local boat owner at the scene on Saturday morning described the damage as “not ideal”.
It is thought a crack in the harbour wall had been visible for about a month.
Last night, local councillor John Cox said: “A crack appeared some time ago and I was informed that a survey of the harbour was to be undertaken.
“Obviously, the timing of what has happened isn’t very good.
“But whether this was a major fault or just an act of nature remains to be seen.”
He added: “Certainly, harbour users have been keeping an eye on it. I think we’re just fortunate that no one was hurt and no boats were damaged.
“It will need structural engineers to look at it, so I imagine nothing will happen until Monday morning when we found if we’ll be able to fix it in-house.
“It’s a historic harbour, and one of the suggestions I’ll be making is to carry out a full survey of the harbour and see if there’s any funding we can access for work. What will be required will not come cheap.”
The 76-berth marina at Banff was opened in April 2007 but the harbour has been present in the town since 1625 – when rocks were first cleared from the coastline to open up a haven for vessels.
Boats still fish out of the port on a small scale.
