Remove parts of line that fall within a polygon

Question

I have a polygon and two lines. How can I remove the portion of each line that falls within the polygon?

# polygon
coords <- matrix(c(-1.798123, -1.793072, -1.805767, -1.804129, -1.798123, 55.68066, 55.67369, 55.67508, 55.68139, 55.68066), ncol=2)
myPolygon <- Polygons(list(Polygon(coords)),  "myPolygon")
myPolygon <- SpatialPolygons(list(myPolygon))
proj4string(myPolygon) <- CRS("+proj=longlat +datum=WGS84 +ellps=WGS84 +towgs84=0,0,0")
plot(myPolygon)


# lines
line1 <- matrix(c(-1.79880, -1.79517, 55.67737, 55.67920), ncol=2)
line2 <- matrix(c(-1.80231, -1.80679, 55.67764, 55.68004), ncol=2)
line1L <- Line(line1)
line2L <- Line(line2)
my.lines <- Lines(list(line1L, line2L), ID="my.lines")
myLines <- SpatialLines(list(my.lines))
proj4string(myLines) <- CRS("+proj=longlat +datum=WGS84 +ellps=WGS84 +towgs84=0,0,0")
plot(myLines, add=T)

Answer 1

The gDifference function from the rgeos package is probably your best/easiest bet.

Returns the regions of geometry1 that are not within geometry2.

For reference, the example from the above link (substitute your polygon/line geometries):

x = readWKT("POLYGON ((0 0, 0 10, 10 10, 10 0, 0 0))")
y = readWKT("POLYGON ((3 3, 7 3, 7 7, 3 7, 3 3))")

d = gDifference(x,y)
plot(d,col='red',pbg='white')

d2 = gDifference(y,x)