The obstruction to flow around a pile placed in an erodible seabed causes scour leading to changes in the bed elevation in the vicinity of the pile. In the present investigation, scour around piles induced by the seabed current has been studied in a wave flume using model piles of diameters 50, 90 and 110 mm embedded in a silty clay soil bed. The particulate movement due to scour is time dependent and in case of sediments with particle sizes ranging upto clay fractions, the measurement of scour becomes extremely difficult. This paper presents a simplified experimental technique for the measurement of scour depth with time around a pile foundation in a silty clay soil. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.